• 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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