Many analysts are still trying to understand how Binyamin Netanyahu and his Likud party lost their lead, which the party maintained throughout most of the campaign, attributing the downfall to a number of causes. One of these causes, which played more than a small role in the growing disenchantment with the party among the right-wing camp, was Netanyahu’s tenacious battle to oust Moshe Feiglin and his Manhigut Yehudi faction from the party.
While Feiglin admits he hopes to spread his influence within the party and hopefully become an integral influence on party platform, he has done nothing other than use the party’s democratic system to promote his ideals, which are by far, more in line with the principles of the founding fathers, including Ze’ev Jabotinsky and Menachem Begin. His Greater Eretz Yisrael platform is the building block from which the party was built, but has long since been abandoned by the self-proclaimed right-wing modern-day leaders, whom have compromised the party on major policies, including Oslo, Chevron, Wye, and the expulsion from Gush Katif and N. Shomron.
Nevertheless, Netanyahu opted to push legitimate ideological considerations aside to promote his powerbase, using unprecedented means to oust Feiglin and succeeding at doing so.
The move resulted in the loss of support from the right-wing camp, which found solace perhaps in Bayit Yehuda and Ichud HaLeumi, perhaps providing a partial explanation in Likud’s drop in the polls in the actual election.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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2 Responses
This explains why Bayit Yehuda and Ichud HaLeumi ended up with 15+ seats, and the ability to dictate terms to the major parties, while at the same time Kadimah suffered major loses due to its perceived “soft line” on security matters, while Lieberman only got a handful seats.
You should not confuse “alternate history” (a genre of “what if” and “what could have been” with reality). Feiglin’s involvement, along with Lieberman’s strong showing, scared many Israelis into supporting Kadimah, which made a last minute recovery.
If Feiglin supported National Union, they might have had a more significant number of seats, albeit taken from Likud, and Likud would have ended up with as many seats taken from Kadimah, and there would be no issue today as to whether Livni will be Prime Minister, or even if she will be a major figure.
akuperma – while I agree that Feiglin would have been better off in Ichud Leumi & perhaps they would have gotten still more than 4 seats, to say that Likudniks voted Kadima because of him makes no sense to me. Indeed the fact that ANYONE voted for the corrupt, self-serving Kadima party is beyond comprehension…!