Moshe Feiglin

Feiglin, 2003

Moshe Feiglin (born 1962) is an Israeli right-wing politician. In 1993, he co-founded Zo Artzeinu ("This [is] our Land/Country") movement with Shmuel Sackett to protest the Oslo Accords. He is the founding father of the Israeli civil disobedience movement that developed in protest against the accords. As a result of his activities, he was sentenced to community service for sedition. In March 2008, Feiglin was banned by the Home Secretary from entering Britain, on the grounds that his presence "would not be conducive to the public good".

Feiglin was born in Israel in 1962, graduated from Rabbi Haim Drukman's yeshiva, Or Etzion, and served as a captain in a combat unit in the IDF. He is the author of the books Where There Are No Men, and War of Dreams, publishes numerous articles and appears on international TV and radio frequently. This includes a column in the Brooklyn-based Jewish Press and the Israeli daily Maariv. Moshe and his wife Tzippy have five children and one grandchild. They live in Karnei Shomron, in the Samaria region of the West Bank.

Manhigut Yehudit

Feiglin is the co-founder (along with Sackett) and president of the Manhigut Yehudit ("Jewish Leadership") faction in the Israeli Likud party. Manhigut Yehudit was started, in Feiglin's words, "to lead the State of Israel through authentic Jewish values". The movement is against religious coercion, but wants "Jewish identity" to become Israel's culture. The movement has challenged Israel's secular elite, demands free speech and open airwaves for all sectors of the Israeli public, and wants to break the monopoly the state has on radio and television broadcasts. Feiglin has demanded that Israeli schools be prevented from teaching Arab revisionist history, such as describing the creation of the State of Israel as a disaster (nakba in Arabic).

Feiglin says that the movement’s leadership will arise from "those who have a deep commitment to Torah values." Still, 30 percent of its present members are secular (2005). He opposes the surrender of Jewish land and has demanded the government take action against the estimated 50,000 illegal Arab structures built throughout the country.

Though he has been somewhat more muted on the issue of late, Feiglin has been on public record supporting the "transfer" (willing or otherwise) of Arabs hostile to Israel to Jordan, similar to proposals from other right-wing groups in Israel, both inside and outside the political sphere, including Herut, Hazit, Moledet, Yisrael Beiteinu, and most notably, Kach. (See also Elon Peace Plan.)

For this and other reasons, some of Feiglin's left-wing detractors sometimes accuse of him of being disturbingly similar to the late Rabbi Meir Kahane. While Manhigut's co-founder, Shmuel Sackett, had close ties with Rabbis Meir and Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane, there is little evidence directly connecting Feiglin with Kahane, although there are several ideological similarities between them, such as supporting "transfer" to increase Israel's security, developing a legal system more consistent with Halakha, and restricting Israeli citizenship to Jews. In 2005, Feiglin took this idea a step further and suggested that all Jews who wished to be citizens of Israel, regardless of where they lived, should be given full citizenship and voting rights. Feiglin and Sackett are distinguished most from traditional Kahanism through their commitment to nonviolent protest. Kahanism is often associated with militancy and a tacit acceptance of, if not outright support for, violence. Conversely, Feiglin and Sackett are also attacked in some right-wing Religious Zionist circles (including Kahane supporters) for selling out to the Likud.

In 2004, Feiglin told The New Yorker that he favoured a theocracy in Israel based on Biblical law and that non-Jews should be excluded from Israeli politics. "Why should non-Jews have a say in the policy of a Jewish state? For two thousand years, Jews dreamed of a Jewish state, not a democratic state. Democracy should serve the values of the state, not destroy them.” He dismissed Palestinians saying, “You can’t teach a monkey to speak and you can’t teach an Arab to be democratic. You’re dealing with a culture of thieves and robbers. Muhammad, their prophet, was a robber and a killer and a liar. The Arab destroys everything he touches."

Feiglin in the Likud

In December 2005, Feiglin ran for Likud chairman and won 12.5% of the votes. He did extraordinarily well and came in third out of seven candidates, after Benjamin Netanyahu and Silvan Shalom. He attempted to run for a slot on the party's Knesset list, but encountered severe opposition from Netanyahu, who delayed party elections and advocated making changes to its charter to bar "anyone who has served three or more months in prison" from running as a Likud MK. This would have prevented Feiglin, who served a six-month sentence in the mid-90s for civil disobedience, from running for either an MK or leadership position in the future. Feiglin withdrew from the race on January 3, 2006, following the release of a statement from the Likud party election chairman declaring, in agreement with a prior decision by the Israeli High Court, that Feiglin's conviction was not for "dishonorable" violations of the law, allowing him to participate in future Likud affairs. As of March 1, 2006, when voting for the Knesset list was granted to the membership at large by the party's central committee, Feiglin's chances of being elected MK became more likely.

In the August 14, 2007 primaries, Feiglin nearly doubled his previous showing and received 23.4 percent of the votes to Netanyahu's 72.8 percent. Netanyahu, fearing a strong showing by Feiglin, tried to have him ousted from the party prior to the vote, and has said he will continue such efforts.

Controversy and criticism

Banned from Britain

Feiglin is banned from entering the United Kingdom due to a decision by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, made public in March 2008, excluding Feiglin on the grounds that his presence in the country "would not be conducive to the public good." A letter to Feiglin from the Home Office said that Smith based her decision on an assessment that his activities "foment or justify terrorist violence in furtherance of particular beliefs; seek to provoke others to terrorist acts; foment other serious criminal activity or seek to provoke others to serious criminal acts and foster hatred which might lead to inter-community violence in the UK." Feiglin responded, "Seeing that renowned terrorists like Hizbullah member Ibrahim Mousawi are welcomed in your country in open arms, I understand that your policy is aimed at encouraging and supporting terror."

Arrested for civil disobedience during the Israeli-Palestinian accord

Feiglin was arrested for organizing civil disobedience during the Israeli-Palestinian accord. Feiglin's group called for mass acts of resistance and blocked highways across Israel. Feiglin was charged with "break[ing] the barrier of obedience to the rule of law" and incitement to commit crimes. Feiglin was quoted as stating, "We will do all that it's possible to do, including break the law."

Criticism from Likud members

Notable Knesset member for Likud, Limor Livnat stated that Feiglin and his friends are "not real Likudniks" and that his extremist faction "cannot be allowed to prevail." In a interview with the Jerusalem Post, Livnat explained that Feiglin and his faction must be prevented "from taking over or the party and the state will be in danger," adding, that "this is not democracy, this is anarchy."

Support for convicted spy Jonathan Pollard

Feiglin is a highly vocal supporter of the convicted Israeli spy, Jonathan Pollard, a former naval intelligence analyst who is currently serving a life sentence in Butner Federal Correctional Institution of North Carolina. Feiglin, who has called Pollard a hero, has written a number of articles in support of Pollard. In a recent article, Feiglin stated that "Pollard is a Jew who saved the Israelis from American treachery." Others, such as Avi Shafran, have dismissed the proposition of hailing Pollard a hero, as Shafran stated, "He is a Jew in distress who needs our help. There’s absolutely no condoning of what he did."

External links

• Manhigut Yehudit Website
• Manhigut Yehudit Website in Hebrew
• Moshe Feiglin Page on Facebook
• FrontPage Magazine article about Feiglin's ban from the UK by Dan Rabkin
• Moshe Feiglin interview with FrontPage Magazine by Dan Rabkin

Audio and Video

• Video of Feiglin Speaking at a Moshe Feiglin for Head of Likud and Prime Minister of Israel fundraising event before the August 14, 2007 Likud Primaries
• Moshe Feiglin speaks on CHIN radio - A comprehensive interview

More

• Summary on Moshe Feiglin and Manhigut Yehudit