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Inside Israel

Likud to vote for leader Tuesday


By Stan Goodenough
August 13, 2007

Likud Party members will vote Tuesday for the leader they want to take them into the next general elections, whenever those may be held.

Contending for the post is current Likud Chairman and former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the leader of the "Jewish Leadership" faction of the Likud, Moshe Feiglin, and the former head of the World Likud organization, Danny Danon.

Netanyahu - affectionately and/or derisively known as "Bibi" - is widely expected to score a comfortable win.

Danon, a new and relatively unknown entity, is expected to lose.

Uncertainty hangs in the air over how Feiglin will do. Unlike his opponents, he is a religious Jew who refers to God in his speeches and campaigning - something alien to almost every other Israeli politician.

Religious leaders have hitherto been considered unelectable to the highest office in Israel, and there is little evidence on the ground that this has changed.

Feiglin earned his reputation by orchestrating some of the most effective civil disobedience campaigns in Israel's history against the disastrous and immoral Oslo Accords. So angry did he make the Israeli left that they got him tried for treason.

He was found "guilty" of the lesser charge of sedition and sentenced to community service.

The Jewish Leadership faction exists "to lead the State of Israel through authentic Jewish values." While against religious coercion, it wants "Jewish identity" to become Israel's culture. According to one analyst, "its platform acknowledges that Torah law does not relate to the nuts and bolts of governing a state, but rather to personal, family and community issues."

Both Feiglin and Danon have disparaged Netanyahu as an opportunist who keeps "moving to the left."

The former prime minister has a record of making strong promises but being unable to withstand international pressure and so failing to keep them.

It is also true that, during his tenure at the nation's helm, he was hamstrung by a left and right coalition government that went out of its way to prevent him from moving ahead.

Left wing Israelis hate "Bibi" with the same brand of vitriolic hatred American Democrats tend to direct against US President George W. Bush.

In an article calling for Likud members to vote for him, Netanyahu spelled out the priorities whereby he would lead Israel if returned to the post of prime minister in the next general elections.

They are: to do everything in Israel's power to prevent Iran from acquiring atomic weapons; prepare to face military threats from any front, including Syria and Lebanon; take a "fresh, clear-eyed approach to dealing with the Palestinians;" continue to strengthen Israel's economy as Netanyahu had begun to do as Finance Minister in the Sharon government; and reform Israel's education system.

When it comes to Israel's relations with the Bible-believing Christian world, Netanyahu has openly, repeatedly and unreservedly acknowledged the role played by Christian Zionists in the restoration of the land to the Jews.

He is on record as saying that Christian Zionists are Israel's "strongest" friends.

Feiglin and Danon have befriended individuals in the Christian Zionist world but what their feelings are about Christian Zionism itself is unclear.

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