By Pinchas Baram
Many Jews in America have heard of Labor, Meretz, Likud, Shas, Kadima, but few have heard of a new party, a force emerging within Likud which is on the verge of ousting Bibi Netanyahu and taking over the party and the prime ministership.
I refer to Manhigut Yehudit, a real “sleeper,” which just two years ago received 24 percent of the popular vote within Likud and is now poised to do much better than that. So much so that Bibi is doing everything in his bag of political tricks to get around the latest court decision in Tel Aviv which mandates that new elections to Likud’s Central Committee must take place at the end of next month, an election which heavily favors Manhigut.
Manhigut Yehudit means Jewish Leadership, and it is growing fast in Israel among all sectors — national religious, haredi, secular, Ashkenazi, Sefardi, urban, rural, old-timers, new immigrants, etc.
Here are some of the things it stands for: a constitution; remaking the justice system; Jewish education for all; massive aliyah program; running the country based on Jewish values without, however, religious coercion. Also: no more aid from the USA; a massive program to develop alternative fuels. Also: annexing and settling all the Bibical heartland won in 1967; returning moral strength and the power of deterence to the IDF; offering Israeli Arabs financial incentives to emigrate.
In North America, Manhigut serves as an educational and outreach organization, similar to the Zionist Organization of America. As such it puts emphasis on it own particular goals, e.g., freeing Jonathan Pollard and relocating the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Besides being strong words, these words for many supporters are like manna from heaven, for both the words and the supporters are dead against the status quo and the secular leftist domination of Israel’s power structures — corporations, the legal system, the media, academia. Indeed, Manhigut’s overall and radical goal is “turning the State of the Jews into the Jewish State.”
The analogy has been made that Manhigut’s diverse demographic base is similar to that of the diverse supporters of Sarah Palin and the Teabaggers in the U.S. — essentially, traditional-minded, patriotic, and fed up with the politically correct Establishment, media, elites, and the direction, or lack thereof, their nation is moving/drifting towards. And not only fed up, but fired up...
The leader of Manhigut Yehudit is not a venerable rabbi, or decorated IDF hero, or a well-known author, or veteran Knesset member. He is a Jew named Moshe Feiglin. Feiglin is tall, thin, on the shy intellectual side, with a sharp mind and contrarian bent. He is not Hollywood handsome, nor is he charismatic or has a powerful personality. What he does have is character, real integrity and a clear vision for Israel the land and Israel the people. And these are the attributes politicians in Israel typically do not have, and are the ones more and more people crave.
Feiglin is clearly pro-settlements and pro-Torah, but he also speaks to the interests and local concerns of Jews in greater Tel Aviv, as well as Jews in small moshavim in the Galil or outposts in Judea and Samaria. For unlike other leaders who have emerged from the religious right, Feiglin is aiming for the top slot, to be the prime minister of Israel and therefore responsive to all Jews, and not just a minister of this or that ministry so he can gratify a particular constituency.
So expect the race for political leadership in Israel to be a “new ball game,” and it’s getting started now. Feiglin has been in the U.S. many times and is doing major fundraising in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. His books of essays, “Where There Are No Men“ and “The War of Dreams,“ have been translated into English; his essays and interviews appear regularly
http://www.arutzsheva.com, The Jewish Press (N.Y.), and the Manhigut website,
http://www.JewishIsrael.org.
A chapter of Manhigut Yehudit in Greater Boston is in formation; and inquiries by Jews, regardless of whether or not they have Israeli citizenship, are most welcome.
Please contact the author of this article at
[email protected], or by leaving a message at 617-738-6981.
Pinchas (Phillip) Baram is the author of “The Department of State in the Middle East 1919-1945” (reissued by Ktav) and was the executive director of the New England Zionist Federation, Zionist House, and the Israel Cultural Center of Boston in the 1980s. He has also taught at UMass-Lowell, Temple B’nai Abraham in Beverly, and at the Marblehead JCC.
Topic: Manhigut Yehudit Movement Becoming a Force within Likud (Read 1287 times)