"For the first time, I must admit that I disagree with you."
That started a discussion, rather heated, about supporting the Likud. There was a time when it was taken for granted that all good Betarim would vote for Menachem Begin's political party, Likud (originally Herut, then Gach"al) and join its sick fund, Kupat Cholim Le'umit. That was the party furthest to the Right in the Israeli political spectrum.
Soon after Begin was elected Prime Minister in 1977, he appointed Moshe Dayan as Foreign Minister and allowed the Left to continue its domination of policy. Without an established Right wing opposition, they had no problem giving Egypt the Sinai and destroying all of the Jewish communities which had been established there after the 1967 Six Days War.
That "peace" agreement effectively ended my voting for Likud and trusting and agreeing with its leadership and ideology.
Over the years, various Israeli political leaders have received praise from foreign countries and Nobel Peace Prizes for endangering the security and viability of our country.
This all makes me physically ill. I just don't understand how my fellow Israelis can cooperate with endangering our country.
Sorry, no country with any pride would allow another to force it to endanger its very existence.
Bibi's speech is a sell-out. No normal country would ever endanger itself like this. He thinks he can keep the country safe on a tightrope. It won't work. He has just pushed us further and further into the snare of thorns.
An old Zionist leader wrote that he anxiously awaited the day that we'd have a "normal" country with "crime." I, too, want a "normal" country. But for me, that means one which doesn't beg the world for approval, endangering its very existence in the process.
17 comments:
Batya, Shalom!
I remember Adir Zik, z"l, saying years ago about a political party (I don't remember which one) that supporters were voting for it no matter what because "the party is home". "המפלגה היא הבית." Political parties very often change over time. If we don't take policy changes into account when we choose for whom to vote, then we aren't voting responsibly.
It's hard to leave home and not ever return, but sometimes it's necessary.
Hadassa
P.S. If there's anyone new here, I did vote for Feiglin and other like-minded Likudniks in the primaries. And I did so with very mixed feelings. Feiglin's money and efforts could be much better spent outside of the Likud - almost (and that's the issue) certainly.
Hadassa,
The money spent outside of the Likud has always gone down the drain.
The money invested in Manhigut Yehudit will take time to reap the profits.
Savvy investors don't jump and sell in a panic.
I suggest some of you start attending internal Likud meetings - as doubting Thomases - to see the attitudes of the party's members to the Jewish State and to Netanyahu in both words and actions.
BTW, Adir Zik Z"L was a prominent Manhigut Yehudit supporter to the end.
Shalom!
Shy Guy, could you explain to me just how Feiglin is going to get anywhere in the Likud? As soon as he reached a slot that was realistic Bibi pulled every trick in the book to knock him and his supporters down - and it was all legal. What makes you think that the future of the Likud will be any different?
If everybody that voted for Feiglin had in the end voted for the NU, wouldn't the situation in Israel be better today?
The Likud hasn't been good for the Jews in decades, and has been consistently worse.
Hadassa
P.S. Do you remember the Adir Zik, z"l, quote to which I referred? It's from his A7 show. I wonder what he would say about Manhigut Yehudit today.
I agree 100-percent with everything you wrote, Batya. That quote about wanting Israel to be a normal country with normal crime hit home for me.
For years now I have complained about the people in my community. Every week I report on violent crimes (not terrorism, thankfully) and the other letters to the editor we get in response are complaints about stolen shopping carts and flower baskets and bicycles.
It is all very disheartening. But I can't imagine living in a country with near daily terrorist attacks and the government and world telling me to live with it and reward the criminal terrorists with a state of their own--the establish of the terrorist state which has only one goal--to destroy Israel.
I know the Torah says Hashem will give beauty for ashes but how often do Jews have to literally turned to ashes? It's awful.
No other country of late has been asked or forced to endanger its existence in response to terrorism--not the US after Sept. 11; not Spain after the Madrid bombings; not Englnd after the London subway bombings; not Jordan after the al aquaeda bombing at a wedding reception.
It's appalling that the world would expect Israel to reward her enemies with a terrorist launch state but there is nothing new in what anti-Semitic terrorists are doing.
What I don't get is why so many Israelis are willing to put their heads on the chopping block?
ShyGuy makes an excellent point--get involved in politics and start attending Likud's internal meetings. There must be committes to join.
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Hadassa said...
Shy Guy, could you explain to me just how Feiglin is going to get anywhere in the Likud? As soon as he reached a slot that was realistic Bibi pulled every trick in the book to knock him and his supporters down - and it was all legal. What makes you think that the future of the Likud will be any different?
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You analyzed this correctly. Netanyahu used tricks and it was legal.
Had more of "our" people participated, Feiglin would not have been within the range of slots that legal trick worked within.
Nothing moves uphill on its own. If you don't pitch in, nothing will move forward.
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If everybody that voted for Feiglin had in the end voted for the NU, wouldn't the situation in Israel be better today?
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No. You would have turned off those loyalists - Amcha - who aren't interested in a(nother) religious sectarian party. This is exactly what's been going on for 60 years. You are in a loop.
Worse, you would have sat in opposition just the same, yet worse off because Netanyahu would have also made an alliance with Livni, so that the government would be even more left-leaning than it already is.
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The Likud hasn't been good for the Jews in decades, and has been consistently worse.
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The pols on top, true, though Netanyahu is not worse than Sharon. Sharon was (is) a greedy, self-caring traitor. May he rot.
The membership and especially the Central Committee, however, is just the opposite of your claim. They voted against Sharon - twice. There are plenty that are already against Netanyahu's Sunday giveaway. Just who do you think goes talking to all these people to stoke the flames of Jewish loyalty?
When was the last time you sat and observed an active Likud membership gathering and heard the voices and seen the show of hands of the participants?
Pardon the comparison, but if you want to remove the pus from the inflamation, squeezing it out from the bottom up will give you the best results. In addition, once cleaned, there's less of a chance of the infection spreading elsewhere.
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P.S. Do you remember the Adir Zik, z"l, quote to which I referred? It's from his A7 show.
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I cannot recall.
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I wonder what he would say about Manhigut Yehudit today.
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Nothing different than what he said till the end.
So, too, would he have shaken his head today at the Jews who just don't get it or have the impatience of a 3rd grader 2 minutes before the school's-out bell.
Hadassa, thanks, I agree with you. I'm pretty sure that Adir Zik was referring to Mafdal.
Shy, no change, we disagree on the tactics.
Keli, thanks
For Feiglin's most recent assessment of Netanyahu's failed strategy, see the latest Manhigut Yehudit weekly update. Scroll down to the article "נאום נתניהו".
Shalom!
Thanks muse. Shy Guy, I've got patience. Not everything warrants patience.
Hadassa, I agree about the patience bit. It's not working.
Shy, I have no doubt that by now if Adir had been alive, he would have told Feiglin to let the Likud rot and go on to NU. Gangrene is irreversible.
The guy is a wanna be. There is no future wasting a vote on him. NU still is the best choice for now.
So true.
He's tougher than Uzi Landau but not tough enough. Patience in politics isn't a virtue.
Gangrene of a limb versus a eunuch's castration.
Tough choice there, Muse. Tough choice.
Shy, google search will have fun with your reply.
Hadassa asked how Feiglin or whoever will ever get in with Bibi rigging things. There are two answers to this. First, little by little the makeup of the Knesset faction evolves and there are internal fights. Different MKs will be out of sorts with Bibi and will back the internal opposition. Secondly, the last vote for the LEADERSHIP of the party found Feiglin with 1/4 of the votes. He will get more next time, not less. The more he gets the harder it will be to shove him down.
goyish, no time.
I'm not a Hillary fan, but she thought she had it and ran the campaign which would have worked 10 years earlier.
muse said...
goyish, no time.
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And so we'll have nothing.
Shy, this issue isn't in our consensus.
Now we have nothing becuase too much time, energy and money have been wasted in the Likud.
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