Written After Shabbat, Parshat Shoftim from Jerusalem
Hello Chaim.
Some of your friends from the JDL that have made it into Israel and were also like you, unhappy with some of the statements made by Otzma leadership, do like #4 of the party Meir Dovid Coopersmith. He was number 6 but because the leftist Israeli Supreme Court knocked out Marzel and Gopstein he was moved up to #4.
Coopersmith is interested in fixing relations with you but he is cautious and is waiting to get permission from those above him.
He also said Feiglin is no worse than Bennett and if Otzma was in theory willing to make a technical block with a party that included Bennett, why not cut a deal with Feiglin. He was overruled by the head of the party on that issue.
I myself refused to vote last election for the alliance of Ben Gvir with the remnant of the Bayit Yehudi party.
This time because of Coopersmith and because I feel there is a chance they can improve the security situation, I will support Otzma.
I will be honest. Because of Feiglin's stance on drugs and his liberal attitude towards Homos and those that want to outlaw circumcision, I couldn't support Feiglin in the last election either.
If the Zehut party ever runs again for elections it will have to figure out what issues to drop or what compromises to make to get it to appeal to a wider religious base.
The head of the party, whoever he might be, will have to show he has done Teshuva on the points where Zehut has gone against the Torah.