And Zehava's Soul???

I read

The Likud’s political opponents denounced the list as overly hawkish.“The liberal Likud has lost its soul,” Meretz leader Zehava Gal-On said. “It is scary to imagine what would happen if the Likud will remain in power.”

For someone whose soul was lost years and years ago, that's a lot of chutzpah, Zehava.

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Feiglin's Admission

The Likud's outsider, Moshe Feiglin, finally realized what I and others have been writing for years.  His approach was wrong.

Oh how much money was wasted supporting his Jewish Leadership outfit in its stand-off-on-the-sidelines attitude for almost a decade or so.

But last night, after finally, as of the present, achieving a realistic slot, we read

Feiglin expressed joy that he will finally be entering the Knesset after trying twice before and being blocked by legal challenges initiated by Netanyahu. He credited his decision to tone down his rhetoric and work within the system in Likud rather than try to take it over.
“I changed my style but not my values,” Feiglin said. “The journey I began when I said that this is our land will continue now from inside the parliament. My values have gone into the Likud through the front door, enabling us to defend Israel from its enemies and make it into a state of Jewish freedom.”

He was never considered a Likudnik.

I once, almost facetiously, suggested to him to take over a smaller party, like Meretz, as with the Likud he was going nowhere.

We now have to see if he does get in.

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Political Attack on the Likud

The Benyamin Region Residents Action Committee has published a sharp political advert against Likud Ministers as a result of their inability - or unwillingness - to protect the Migron community which suffered the destruction of three houses last Sunday, this in addition to their web banner campaign against IDF officers.

Here's the advert:

translation:

My House, My Way - The Likud, That's Correct:

The heads of (left to right, first photoshopped picture) of Benny Begin, Limor Livnat, Bogie Yaalon and Bibi Netanyahu appear and in the bopttom picture, you can see the heads of (l-r) Yisrael Katz and Gideon Sa'ar.

The Action Committee is head by my former battalion commander, Col. (Reserve) Yitzhak Shedmi from Neveh Tzuf and the operations coordinator is Shai Karov.

My sources indicate a major push-back that will be felt by Likud senior politicos from the thousands of registered Likud party members that have joined over the past three years, organized by my neighbors Shevach Shtern and Natan Engelsman.

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JPost Report on My Appearance at Begin Memorial

The Jerusalem Post reported on Sunday evening's Likud Anglos' Menachem Begin memorial event here:

Edelstein: Hasbara activists can learn from Begin

I posted pictures here and I am quoted so:

Returning to the issue of semantics, Yisrael Medad, director of information resources at the Begin Heritage Center, told attendees, “We don’t have ‘settlements,’ we have ‘Jewish communities.’” He also objected American leaders’ description of those communities as “illegitimate” because, “It tells the enemies of the Jews that you are an outlaw, and it allows Jewish blood to become cheap. If you’re ‘illegitimate,’ it means people can kill you.”

Begin believed former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was a true partner for peace – despite disagreements that arose during negotiations – and he felt he could agree to a withdrawal from Sinai because unlike Judea, Samaria, Gaza and Jerusalem, Sinai was not included in the mandate the League of Nations assigned to the British for a Jewish national home.

Medad also reminded audience members that Begin supported Palestinian autonomy, but not statehood.

Begin held out hope that a period of autonomy “would convince them that they’re better off with us,” said Medad.

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It's "BibiEhud"

I saw this ad in the newspaper but only came across it on the Internet now:

That's "BibiEhud" there or Ehud Netanyahu.

The ad is sponsored by the Mateh Meshutaf, Kommemiyut and the Residents Actions Committees of Benjamin and Samaria.  It zeros in on four major themes: security, residency in the Land of Israel, losing the way and peace and portrays Netanyahu permitting Ehud Barak to undermine his fundamental positions and sabotage the right-of-center nationalist platform on which he won the last election.  His staff is also seen as fawning before Barak.

The message: The Likud Government Must Separate from Ehud Barak.

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Message To Bibi Netanyahu

Right on the Mark

As we mark a year to the Netanyahu government’s swear-in ceremony, we can declare that the 2009 revolution amounted to new government appointments, rather than refreshed principles. Olmert left, thank God, yet his legacy remained: The two-state solution, a settlement freeze, and a gradually adaptation to America’s caprices.

The new Likud government did not contribute even one new neighborhood to Jerusalem. In fact, it is the first government ever in Israel to wholly paralyze construction in Maale Adumim and to close a hesder yeshiva. The government’s handling of the Qassam problem in the south is reminiscent of the Olmert government’s conduct ahead of Operation Cast Lead. The defense minister is the same defense minister...

The overwhelming majority of Likud members are quiet, as their leader leads them towards a terminal ideological collapse. From one speech to the next, he eliminates the remains of the ideology left in the party in the wake of the Sharon era...In the next elections, the Likud will not be able to draft a platform that would distinguish it from Kadima and from the Labor party.

Hagai Segal

The Left Can't See The Right is Right

We already forgot that Likud is not supposed to carry out the policies of the Left, as there is some kind of deal: The Left and Kadima will win 30-40 Knesset seats, and the victorious Likud will then start to realize their plans. In the morning, it will withdraw from the Golan Heights, by noon it will renounce Judea and Samaria, and in the evening, to finish it off, it will divide Jerusalem.

The relatively rightist Likud Knesset roster may spoil these plans. The leftists woke up in the morning after the Likud primaries and discovered that Likud is not Meretz. How disappointing it is that these Likudniks cannot be trusted.

We already forgot that the real rebels are not the so-called Likud “rebels.” The “rebels” is a derogatory term that was repeatedly attributed to the Knesset members who refused to capitulate in the face of former PM Sharon’s threats and temptations ahead of the Gaza disengagement plan. The rebels were in fact the ones who remained loyal to the Likud platform, while Sharon was the one who rebelled, broke his promises, disregarded the Likud platform, failed to accept the majority’s decision in the Likud vote, and ultimately destroyed a whole region...

Read more of Uri Ohrbach's opinion piece.

On Likud Primaries

Here's Shmuel Sackett explaining the murky mechanics of Likud primaries:-

...allow me inform you how this crazy system works: Boaz HaEtzni won the YESHA spot with 2,718 votes. Ophir Okinis won the TEL AVIV spot with 1,923 votes. Katey Sheitrit won the JERUSALEM spot with 1,648 votes and Guy Yifrach won the MOETZET EZORIT spot with 669 votes. All of these people WON and will be Knesset members very soon. Compare that to me:

I received 10,234 votes (you read that right!!) and LOST the Olim spot.

Now for the obvious question: How can someone get 669 votes and WIN, while another gets 10,234 votes and LOSES??? Because last week, Bibi changed the rules - with the approval of the Central Committee - to make it MANDATORY for every voter to cast two votes for the Olim spots (which was not the case for any of the other specialized spots). This rule change was done specifically to target Asya [Entov] and myself, the two Feiglin candidates for Olim. Had the old rule remained in place, very few people would have voted for the Olim and my 10,234 votes would have made me a major winner. Instead, I get 10,234 votes and sit on the sidelines while people with 6% of those votes are considered winners!!!

Likud Primaries

Exercising my democratic right to try to influence the composition of the next Knesset and Government:

Follow-up On That Anti-Bibi Campaign of Kadima

Kadima, the clean party, remember?

Their campaign to portray Benjamin nNetanyahu as a liar has been reined in.

Kadima to clarify ads against Netanyahu

The Central Elections Committee has rejected a request by Likud MK Michael Eitan to halt Kadima's anonymous campaign against Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu, but instructed Kadima to officially endorse the ads on buses and billboards within three days.

On Thursday, committee chairman Eliezer Rivlin rejected Eitan's petition against unsigned Kadima ads that read, "Bibi? I don't believe him."

Rivlin told Kadima to identify the ads on billboards and buses as its responsibility within three days...

...Former Likud spokesman Ophir Akunis, who is currently a candidate on the party's Knesset list, said in response that "the party of the greatest bluffs in the history of Israeli politics should be the last one to talk about bluffing. The Israeli public has already seen through Kadima's bluff - [it's] a party of advertisers - and no tricks can help the campaigners, who know that the product they're marketing - Kadima under [Foreign Minister Tzipi] Livni's leadership - is defective and unwanted."

...The Likud responded that Rivlin's decision constituted a victory because it declared the ads illegal.

They actually claimed at Kadima that the Internet advertising space was not covered by the law. Ha!

The Anti-Moshe Feiglin Poster

Up on billboards and posterboards and on web sites:



The main message is based on this poll:

An internet-based poll conducted for the Knesset Channel and reported by News1 shows the Likud gaining six less Knesset seats in the upcoming elections if Moshe Feiglin is included in a meaningful position in its list.

According to the poll, Likud without Feiglin will receive 36 seats but Likud with Feiglin will only receive 30 MKs. Most of the six seats lost will go to current ruling party Kadima

.

and the background:

A group of Likud MKs hope to stop central committee member Moshe Feiglin from making the party's Knesset list in Monday's party primary by appealing directly to his likely supporters.

The veteran lawmakers, who call themselves "The Land of Israel Faithful in the Likud," are launching an advertising campaign on Thursday geared toward haredim and settlement supporters.

Via religious newspapers, billboards in haredi neighborhoods and letters to the homes of settlement-backers, the group will ask for their votes in the primary and remind them that they also opposed the 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip.

Among the Likud MKs involved are Gilad Erdan, Reuven Rivlin, Yuli Edelstein, Moshe Kahlon and former MKs Ayoub Kara and Michael Ratzon, who are also running in next week's primary. The ads will appear in the Makor Rishon, Besheva and Yediot Yesha newspapers, among others...

Likud Is Furious

I saw the above on a bus today.

I came back home, searched around a bit and found out that the Likud is furious about the slogan.

It translates as: " Bibi? I don't believe him."

Haaretz (in Hebrew) is reporting that the Likud is demanding that either the bus posters be removed in that they represent electioneering not in accordance with the regulations or that a sposor's name be attached. In Israel, non-party bodies cannot participate in electioneering.

The fact that the posters are anonymous is not only simple cowardice but it allows a real party, say, Kadima, from assuming resposnibility for dirty politicking as well as having the advertisements assigned to the allowance each party is permitted. And it also would damage Tzipi Livni's image as a clean politician. I'm guessing Eyal Arad is behind it for he's the eminence grise of black work or dirty tricks and loves to deal in "psychological propaganda".

More to come.

No, This Is Not The 1930s or the 1950s

Political news:

Ze'ev Jabotinsky, namesake of the man who is considered by many to be on a par with Herzl as a great Zionist thinker and leader, announced officially on Sunday that he will be running for a spot on Likud's list for the Knesset, in the party primaries scheduled to take place December 8.

In a joint news conference with Jabotinsky, Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu said that he was somewhat overcome with excitement, to be sharing the stage with the grandson of the man who founded the Herut movement, which later became the Likud. The news conference came a week after another Likud 'prince,' Benny Begin, son of Herut leader and former Prime Minister Menachem Begin, announced that he too was returning to the Likud.

For the uninitiated

1. Zev Jabotinsky, the grandfather of, 1880-1940, founded the Zionist Revisionist Party in 1925.

2. Menachem Begin, the father of, 1913-1992, was head of the Betar Youth Movement in Poland, Commander ofd the Irgun and founder and long-time chairman of the Herut and later Likud parties.

3. Ben-Tzion Netanyahu, the father of, 1912 - , was a secretary of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, NZO activist and historian.

That's Odd

Yehiel Leiter, who served as Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff in the Finance Ministry, as aide to Limor Livnat, as head of One Israel Fund and who directed the Yesha Council Foreign Office, not to mention directing the Hebron Fund some 18 years ago, and who is known to me personally, wrote this:-

In all matters pertaining to future diplomatic processes, the Likud movement must declare that it would not honor any agreement that does not safeguard the principle of “defensible borders” for the State of Israel, or that calls for the uprooting of Jewish communities, or does not require the other side to give something clear in return.

Now, I could very well be mistaken but I don't think that last bit was phrased properly and here's the original Hebrew, if you want to check the translation:-

בכל הנוגע להליכים מדיניים עתידיים, על תנועת הליכוד להצהיר שלא תכבד כל הסכם שאיננו שומר על העיקרון של "גבולות בני הגנה" למדינת ישראל, התחייבות לעקור יישובים יהודיים, או הסכם שאיננו דורש תמורה ברורה מהצד השני. )

As published, it would appear to suggest that as long as we get "something in return" (what has clear to do with this?), we can give up and yield. That doesn't seem right. Well, at least as an opening position.

Even the Likud, or someone who may be considering himself as a future MK, should have written something like this:

At this moment in the history of negotiations between Israel and the Arabs of this region, and especially based on the experience of the past 14 years, that is, since the Oslo Accords, Israel cannot yield anything.

The Arabs have shown an unwillingness to abide by any agreement and committment reached, have not given up terror, have instructed a whole new generation to hate Israel and Judaism and have trained these youngsters to view themselves as martyrs, have generated the suicide bomber, have not honored even agreements between themselves, continue to target civilians, elected a terror gang as a government, have not fully compromised on the so-called two-state solution, have damaged the Temple Mount and other Jewish religious sites and other acts against humanity.

Only when Israel is convinced that the situation has reached a level of security and reeducation will any sort of reciprocity be engaged.

I am not at all happy with all that but it reads to me a lot better than what Yehiel wrote.

Missing from the NYTimes? Doesn't Fit?

What's missing on this page?

Right. The election victory of Likud on May 17, 1977.

P.S. Click on "feedback", why don't you, and let them know what's missing.