Posted on 11/01/2007 8:43:23 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator
When Menachem Begin was elected as prime minister in 1977, Jews in Israel and the world over were filled with pride and hope. Those hopes, though, were summarily dashed. Whoever had anticipated a true revolution soon became painfully aware that political rule and actual control are not necessarily concurrent. Begin quickly appointed Laborite Ezer Weitzman to serve as defense minister and Moshe Dayan to serve as Foreign Minister. Those appointments proved that nationalism without Judaism cannot stand on its own two feet. In order to see itself as legitimate, it needs leftist crutches.
The leaders of the Right have a problem. On the one hand, they represent the majority in Israel. But on the other hand, both the religious and political rightist leaders do not believe in the relevance of Judaism on the national level. As a result, they are incapable of creating an authentic nationalist alternative to the Left. These leaders have no real intention of fighting the battle of their constituency. And why should they? They can be prime minister, or Yesha leader or head of the yeshivah/military academies without troubling themselves to fight.
Common political wisdom dictates that for the Likud to win the elections, it must win the "centrist" vote. But the truth is just the opposite. As soon as the Likud adopts more leftist positions, it loses. Netanyahu also explains his battle against Moshe Feiglin with the same logic. If the Likud will seem too rightist, it will lose votes. The facts, of course, don't seem to disturb Mr. Netanyahu. After his struggle against Moshe Feiglin, the Likud won just 12 Knesset seats. The Kadimah voters were unimpressed with Netanyahu's "centrist" rhetoric. But he did lose a tremendous amount of rightist votes to Lieberman -- who is now bolstering Olmert's Jerusalem-dividing government with the votes of his well-meaning but na?ve constituency.
Last week, Dr. Asher Cohen of the Bar Ilan University published the findings of his 2006 democracy survey. The findings show that 22% of Israel's citizens define themselves as "extreme Right," 12% as "Right," and 15% as "moderate Right," or in other words, as Likud. When Netanyahu locked the doors to prevent Moshe Feiglin from congratulating him after the previous primaries, he was actually disenfranchising 34% of Israel's population. Moshe Feiglin and Manhigut Yehudit are the Likud bridgehead to a vast amount of voters who are disenchanted with the ruling nationalist party.
Netanyahu is a very rational man. Wouldn't he prefer to head a true right wing party with 49 Knesset seats instead of a shrunken centrist party with 12 or 15 Knesset seats?
The painful but true answer is that he would not. Netanyahu prefers to lean on the Left's crutches with a small and identity-less Likud behind him. He would rather leave the control in the hands of the Left than to head a strong Likud government that stands on its own two Jewish feet.
Why?
Netanyahu does not believe in the ability of the national camp to lead by itself. He certainly does not believe that Israel should be guided by Jewish values. But he does want to be prime minister. So he prefers to have the Likud just strong enough to get him into the prime minister's chair -- but absolutely not more than that. When Netanyahu fights against Feiglin, he does not do so to make the Likud seem more "centrist" and get more votes. He does it to signal to the Left that he is fighting their common enemy -- the person with the real potential to replace them.
Netanyahu does not fight Feiglin to save the Likud. Netanyahu fights Feiglin and the Likud -- to save Netanyahu.
Don't we have more important things to write about, with Jerusalem on the chopping block? Not really. To save Jerusalem and essentially -- to save the Nation of Israel, we have to understand which leaders actually intend to win the struggle -- and which leaders will channel all of our frustrated energy and concern to absolutely nowhere, as part of the cynical game orchestrated by the Left.
Sounds like Likud has the same problem with "centrism" that the Republican party has.
See my remark about my not going “soft!”
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