I do not have the answer to the question. Feiglin has called a convention for Monday night in which he will announce his plans for the future, or at least begin the discussion.
However, the rumors are swirling, and the news is reporting on some of them. The two main rumors are that, first, Feiglin will either join up with Eli Yishai's new party Yachad - Ha'am Itanu, and, second, that Feiglin will form his own new party and make a run for the Knesset. Both of these rumors state that his intention would be to rally the public around him to form a large bloc that will lead the nation.
To me this makes no sense. Moshe Feiglin has spent the last 15-20 years rejecting the calls for him to join the smaller parties and has insisted that the only way to lead the nation is through the Likud. I don't see how he can go back on that now and tell people that the way forward is with the small parties, or forming his own small party.
What he can do is say he was wrong, and instead will lower his expectations and plans and then join a small party or form his own and work for the best he can accomplish through that venue, rather than the goal he has had until now of leading the nation.
He can also stay in the Likud, or he can resign from politics.
The truth is that he does not have much to show, within the Likud, for his 15 years of work. He has led the way, and paved the way for the Right and other religious people to take leadership positions and move the religious sector into leadership positions, such as the surge of Habayit Hayehudi, but within the Likud he has little to show for his work. He could not even gather 12,000 votes within the Likud after 15 years, which means he is probably not worth much from an electoral perspective to any specific party.
It is a shame. I liked him. I thought he did good work. I thought his attempt to bring faith and Judaism to government was important, and I thought he served [mostly] with honor and dignity. I think his presence will be sorely missed in the Knesset. The best I can hope for is that he will have paved the way for others to move into the type of leadership positions that he was promoting.
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Rafi,
ReplyDeleteYou wrote "I thought he served [mostly] with honor and dignity". Could you please explain what you are referring to when you seem to limit your statement with the word "mostly"? One could disagree with his policies, ideas, or strategy. However, everyone who knows him or who has dealt with him seems to be of the opinion that he is a completely honest, moral, sincere and ethical person.
Kol tuv,
Avi
I only qualified it with [mostly] because some could describe his behavior regarding the Har Habayit issue as undignified, messianic, and incitement to violence. personally I do not, but I do know that some people do
DeleteAgreed. The Likud and Netanyahu really did screw up on this one. They should have jumped on the traditional/dati bandwagon a few years ago to pull more DL over, but they are so heavily scarred by an inferiority complex and constantly wanting the mainstream leftist media to like them. And Feiglin ruined that dream and now the Liud will seem themselves become the new Labour sinking to lower and lower numbers and relevancy just like Labour of the early 2000s.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't matter much but when the Likud elections committee called a recount he did get over 12,000 votes - more like 14,500. But he's still in the same unrealistic spot.
ReplyDeleteI think now he's confronting the idea that far too many people in politics will do anything to maintain status quo because that keeps them in the game. That people throw their ideologies to the side in the name of self preservation since after all if they can't preserve themselves they can't pursue their ideology either. And the Likud leadership is rumored to have thrown Feiglin to the dogs because his goal (taking over leadership) was getting too close for comfort.
"taking over leadership" perhaps. It's actually a pretty ridiculous situation that the older generation is failing miserably with: the leadership is not preparing the next generation of leaders. They seem to be too afraid to create a golem that will rise up over the creator? In the meantime, we are left with people who are simply not ready and people like Cahlon, who if only they would stay in line and keep getting prepared instead of wanting to jump in front of the line. Feiglin should be commended for running the marathon and not giving up early. I'm going to say it again, the Likud really screwed up on this instead of inviting more DLs into the party.
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