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Moshe Feiglin is head of the Jewish Leadership faction in the Likud and can be reached via the web site.
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By Moshe Feiglin
June 23, 2004
In the final analysis, what is democracy if not the subservience of the government and the citizens to the same rules of the game? It is true that it is customary for leaders to bend the rules, and this is even acceptable up to a certain limit. But when a leader makes a fundamental change to the game, and has no intention of subjecting himself to the same rules that he demands from his nation, he is no longer playing in the democratic arena.
He is still a leader, but not one who can continue to enjoy the legitimacy of a democratic prime minister. He is forcing himself upon me by violence, and consequently I do not accept his leadership, but merely fear the enforcement agencies obeying his orders.
The Likud must rapidly dismiss Ariel Sharon, and replace him by a member of the party obligated to accept its decisions and institutions, and to honor Israeli democracy. This must be done inside the party institutions, and in the Knesset, in cooperation with all the nationalist and religious MKs. This is essential not merely to save the Likud that Sharon is trampling underfoot. It must be done in order to prevent the State of Israel from sliding into total chaos.
Sharon has already created a culture of totalitarian government that can only be changed by his dismissal. The debate no longer centers around security, territorial, or even ideological issues. We are actually talking about our ability to run this country on a basis of agreement and not of violence. When Arieh Golan (a member of Uri Avnery's Gush Shalom) declares on Kol Israel, without a trace of hesitation, that citizens who refuse to accept compensation will be evicted from their homes within a few months, and all because of such a gangster-type political hijacking, this means that we have been enslaved by a dangerous and violent gang.
This is the same type of government culture that was created here in order to hasten the country on the slippery path of death of Oslo. At that time Rabin passed a decision in the Knesset by bribing MKs Goldfarb and Segev. Sharon is now using a far simpler method - he fires ministers instead of bribing them.
What is the real difference between this approach and that of the Mafia, that forces owners of businesses to sell them to the don, according to the rules they make? The Mafia wants to create the impression of legitimacy. Why bother to pass a decision in the Likud Central Committee, in a referendum, in the government? So that Arieh Golan can make this horrifying broadcast.
I now realize that Sharon is no longer my prime minister. Everything now depends on the Likud. If the Likud members, the Central Committee members, and above all, the Likud MKs, won't get up and throw out this dangerous person, there will not longer be any meaning to this party. The Likud will cease to exist, and a terrible danger will threaten the very existence of the State of Israel.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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