For all those following internal Likud politics (and I hope that's not too many of you), the results are now in. I mentioned in an earlier post that 8 of the 26 current and recent MKs would get knocked out and speculated which they might be. Five of the ones I mentioned as likely losers (Hazan, Gorlovsky, Gavriely, David Levy, Gila Gamliel) were indeed knocked out, but three others (Ness, Haim Katz, Ben-Lulu) got in. Instead the three other losers were three very worthy candidates, Michi Ratzon, Ehud Yatom and Ayoub Kara. It was sad to see Ratzon walk off with his head hanging down, alone and forlorn, while others celebrated. The four good candidates whom I was worried about (Sharansky, Edelstein, Eitan and Shteinitz) all got in.
Michael Fuah, the candidate of Manhigut Yehudit, was slaughtered by Danny Danon, who lead all candidates on the sector lists. Manhigut not only lost badly, it looked foolish doing so. Manhigut gave little support to Uzi Landau and Yuli Edelstein, probably the two most worthy candidates, because of perceived slights to Michael Fuah. Both won anyway, but Moshe Feiglin will now have to explain to his constituents, who have great respect for Landau and Edelstein and don't really give a damn about petty little deals, why Manhigut preferred Haim Katz and Yisrael Katz, two sleazy operators, over those two. In at least one case, Manhigut may actually have caused the best candidate (Shimon Gapso, running in the North) to lose to an inferior candidate (Zion Pinian) as a result of a deal. Altogether, a pretty good day for the Likud, a carastrophe for Manhigut Yehudit.
posted by Ben at 2:55 AM
4 Comments:
What you describe as a "catastrophe" for Manhigut Yehudit will hopefully be a blessing for Am Israel. In the 2003 primaries they blocked a highly qualified religious fellow who is a good friend of mine from entering the Knesset. He would have made it if they had supported him, something they had led him to believe before the vote. In the end, it was apparent that they didn't want any other datiim on the list other than Feiglin (BTW-he says now he doesn't want to be in the Knesset because it is "corrupt", but he sure did the last time), so they supported people like Roni Bar-On, Olmert and other riffraff allied with Sharon and the destruction of Gush Katif instead. As you pointed out, they did the same this time.
Manhigut Yehudit is simply a cult of Feiglin followers. I certainly hope they disappear from the scene. Now, Motti Karpel and others (and Feiglin, for that matter) are intelligent people and I hope they continue to write and express their views. They are simply disastrous politicians. Many of the ideas of Manhigut Yehudit are good and I just hope some qualified people will enter politics and push the ideas they have advocated so ineffectively up until now.
IMHO, the Likud list is somewhat more attractive than I thought it would be, although corrupt hacks like Shalom (AKA Mr Judy), Livnat, Naveh and Y. Katz are still on it. However, on the positive side Scharansky and Edelstein have realistic spots and they will hopefully pull in a lot of Russian voters.
None of this changes my view, though, that we of the "national camp" or "dissident Jews" should boycott the elections.
Are you still involved with M.Y.?
A catastrophe brought on by Manhigut Yehudit themselves. They are simply hopeless, ineffective - or even worse slimy and backhanded. Michael Fuah's comment in the weekend paper that they supported Olmert last time b/c he wasn't yet speaking of disengagement is laughable if it weren't so sad. Any careful examination of Olmert's political alliances and statements throughout his career (and it's a long one dating back to his attempted putsch of Begin in 1966) would have shown EXACTLY where he stood. I have to agree with Bar Kochba132 here - Feiglin only wants HIS people on the list and cut slimy backhanded deqals to keep other religious, nationalistic, and yes even emuni candidates off the list. Emuni in Manhigut Yehudit terms means someone who worships the cult of Feiglin.
Hopefully they will disappear. At least they can console themselves with the fact that they are indeed kingmakers - as they said they would become - as Olmert would not be eligible to become interim PM which he will become shortly, were he not an MK - and he's only an MK b/c of Feiglin and co. (and presumably the blogowner who provided one the 100 CC votes that pushed Olmert over the top into spot 33 in 2003).
I would like to add to "Settler"'s
comment about MY people claiming that they didn't know what Olmert was like when they supported him in 2003, that MY apparently has a bad memory. Olmert appeared almost every night during the election broadcasts in 1999 saying "Barak won't divide Jerusalem", implying
that he, in practice, was supporting Barak over the candidate of his own party, Netanyahu. He lamely claimed that they were using a videotape made that was not intended as a political advertisement, but he could have demanded that they stop using it because it looked like he was endorsing him (which in fact what he was doing) when they repeatedly broadcast it. Ironically, both Barak and Olmert now support the division of Jerusalem (shows how much you can believe the promises of these slime-ball politicians).
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