|
|
| By: Stan Goodenough |
| Published: August 14, 2007 |
| |
Likud Party members will vote Tuesday for the leader they want to take them into the next general elections, whenever those may be held.
Contending for the post is current Likud Chairman and former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the leader of the "Jewish Leadership" faction of the Likud, Moshe Feiglin, and the former head of the World Likud organization, Danny Danon.
Netanyahu - known as "Bibi" - is widely expected to score a comfortable win.
Danon, a new and relatively unknown entity, is expected to lose.
Uncertainty hangs in the air over how Feiglin will do. Unlike his opponents, he is a religious Jew who refers to G-d in his speeches and campaigning - something alien to almost every other Israeli politician.
Religious leaders have hitherto been considered unelectable to the highest office in Israel, and there is little evidence on the ground that this has changed.
Feiglin earned his reputation by orchestrating some of the most effective civil disobedience campaigns in Israel's history against the Oslo Accords. So angry did he make the Israeli left that they got him tried for treason.
He was found "guilty" of the lesser charge of sedition and sentenced to community service.
The Jewish Leadership faction exists "to lead the State of Israel through authentic Jewish values." While against religious coercion, it wants "Jewish identity" to become Israel's culture.
According to one analyst, "its platform acknowledges that Torah law does not relate to the nuts and bolts of governing a state, but rather to personal, family and community issues."
This article first appeared on the Jerusalem Newswire.
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
