Netanyahu's nemesis / A far-right scarecrow named Feiglin

[Jefferson23]

If Benjamin Netanyahu didn't have Moishe Zalman Feiglin, he would have had to invent him. Were it not for that old scarecrow, it is doubtful whether the prime minister would have been able to wake the Likud Central Committee from its hibernation and get members to the polls Thursday to help save him from the problem called "internal elections." The moment Netanyahu started using the Feiglin threat, the central committee started shaking off its indifference.

If the prime minister wins the ballot tonight, he will owe his victory to Feiglin, the right-wing extremist who manages to generate noise way beyond his power in Likud. He is not expected to increase his strength by much, even if internal party elections are held shortly.

Despite Feiglin Netanyahu has recognized the right of the Palestinians to a state, frozen construction in the territories and almost didn't build in Jerusalem during the past year - and nothing happened. The coalition is stable and he is indispensable to Likud.



If, on the other hand, Netanyahu loses, he will claim the moral high ground and portray himself as the moderate striving for peace, opposed by a radical war-monger. Yesterday, in a press conference in the Knesset, surrounded by his supporters from the party faction, Netanyahu prepared the ground for a possible loss, describing the two-thirds majority he requires as "almost impossible to achieve."

Like Sharon before him, Netanyahu abhors dealing with party affairs, the contact with the job-hungry activists, the endless need to invest time and attention to maintain the wheeler-dealers. He remembers the damage the Likud convention of November 1997 caused him. He did not recover from that trauma (Likud in all its ugliness) until the end of his first term as prime minister. Postponing the elections would relieve him of all this disgusting stuff.

in full: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1166112.html

[ShortnFiery]

1. I honestly didn't know you could be FURTHER right politically than Netanyahu?

The thought is bone chilling. :(

[Donald Ian Rankin]

5. Most of the Israeli government is. N.T.

[YOY]

2. It's like Rabin's assassin got everything he wanted...

Israeli politics seem so far right it frightens me.

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. Kinda like Curtis LeMay making Goldwater look like a moderate. nt

[LeftishBrit]

4. Ye gods

Well, no American Republican seems too right-wing to be challenged in a primary from the Right (I call it the First Law of Republican Politics). And groups like Islamic Jihad clearly regard Hamas as too soft. So I suppose it's predictable that Netanyahu, too, would be eventually challenged from the right.

However, if Feiglin (who has opened his filthy mouth before, and comes across as a sort of cross between Jean-Marie LePen and Pat Robertson) actually *wins*, it will be utter disaster. Let's hope that there us really no chance of such a thing!