Readers’ notes in the last few days include these tidbits:
- Moshe Feiglin, head of the Manhigut Yehudit (“Jewish Leadership”) faction in the Likud, has been touring the U.S., speaking at synagogues such as Congregation B’nai Yeshurun in Teaneck. Manhigut Yehudit’s website includes a draft constitution in Hebrew with such features as a rabbinical council that could overturn all laws. In an interview with the fawning Jewish Press, Feiglin said that “There is no such thing as innocent civilians” and said that as prime minister he would have responded to the Merkaz Harav terror attack last month by acting against the attacker’s entire village. Feiglin’s support in the Likud comes entirely from the far-right activists he has signed up as party members, to the embarrassment of the rest of the party. But what are American congregations doing hosting someone who can be called, with understatement, a fascist?
- Thank God for the farm lobby: Agricultural Minister Shalom Simhon told Ha’aretz recently that Israel’s farm sector “is built on exports to the Palestinian economy.” Simhon is therefore acting to increase food supplies to the Gaza Strip. If a concern for human rights won’t prevent the use of starvation as a weapon, at least some vested economic interests are at stake.
- More Hagee-ography. Rob Eshman, editor of the L.A. Jewish Journal, interviewed John McCain and asked him about his ties with Rev. John Hagee. McCain told him that Hagee supports an Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Writes Eshman (emphasis mine):
I started to correct him — Hagee and other evangelicals most certainly don’t support compromise on territory or Jerusalem, and McCain must know this. That’s when I got my first taste of the famous McCain technique: I’ll-talk-so-you-can’t.
“Look,” he cut me off, “I just have to tell you that we should be so grateful for the support of the evangelical movement for the state of Israel, given the influence that they have, beneficial influence that they have over millions of Americans, and then we’ll worry about a peace process later on…”
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I can assure you that Feiglin’s group in the Likud will never be able to capture power. Don’t forget that the Likud is the party that destroyed Gush Katif and most of the top people in the party like Netanyahu, Steve Shalom and Livnat all supported it. The Likud’s official policy is in favor of a Palestinian state and is really not very different than the platforms of the Labor Party and Kadima. All the right-wingers I know think Feiglin is a fool for being in the Likud. Another thing it is important to remember is that all the organs of coercion of the state, including the State Prosecutor’s Office, Police, Attorney General, SHABAK and the state-controlled media are in the hands of “progressives” and so if it was ever thought that Feiglin and his people could really amass some real power or influence, these organs of the state would intervene and find some pretext to put Feiglin in jail and break up his organization, as they did with Aryeh Deri, Arutz 7, and various politicians who challenged these groups like Haim Ramon, Yaakov Ne’eman, etc, etc. The reason they have not yet moved against Feiglin is that they see he has no real influence and his presence in the Likud is an embarrassment to the party and is perceived as aiding the Left politically at this point in time.