Political Tricks with a Basketball

Remember the Harlem Globetrotters? They were playing what was supposed to be a basketball game against a team of straight men, usually called the Washington Generals but sometimes the something-or-other All-Stars. The poor white boys played good basketball but the talented Afro-Americans were playing a different game: theater on the basketball court. They did all the hotdog stunts which could cause your coach to kill you if you ever tried one in a game. The funny thing was that they always won while their poor stiff opponents were always looking the wrong way.
Well, now the pastime of basketball sleight-of-hand has come to Israel. No, the Globetrotters are not scheduled to play in Yad Eliyahu. Along with all sorts of other "big names" (Begin, Jabotinsky, Dayan, Meridor), American-Israeli basketball legend Tal Brody is running for the Likud list in the Knesset primaries. The majority of the people in the country, according to polls, want a right-wing, strongly security conscious government with Jewish values. Instead, they are in danger of getting a Likud list top-heavy with all sorts of people whose real intentions have never been tested or who are known leftists.
With the Europhile Obama Administration about to take office, it has never been more imperative for the Likud to be resolute in its determination not to be pushed into further appeasement and suicide initiatives. There will almost certainly be pressure from the new administration. Bibi Netanyahu, if the Likud wins, as elected head of the party will be Prime Minister. He needs the strongest and most principled people behind him. Of course he has so far gone in the opposite direction, refusing to cooperate with Moshe Feiglin, who finished second in the race for party leader, and opposing the entry of Effi Eitam into the Likud.
It is too late for those who are not yet members of the Likud to join and vote in the primaries this time. But those who are already members should vote for Moshe Feiglin and Manhigut Yehudit and encourage others to do so. Otherwise the Begin-Sharon tradition of giving away territory for terror will continue and the Likud will continue to be the Licouldn't.