Dr. Aaron Lerner is co-founder of IMRA, Independent Media Review and Analysis, an Israel-based news organization which provides an extensive digest of media, polls and significant interviews and events relating to the Israeli-Arab conflict. imra@netvision.net.il
Bibi's Choice: Defining the Likud democratically or dishonestly
By Dr. Aaron Lerner
December 23, 2005
Newly elected Likud Chairman MK Binyamin Netanyahu's desire to remove criminal elements from the Likud Party is laudable, but it is hardly the way to address the electoral liability that Moshe Feiglin's presence in the party may represent.
That Feiglin was sentenced for leading a stringently non-violent movement against Oslo should be an embarrassment for anyone embracing democratic values. The equally incredible ruling later that Feiglin's crime was so odious that he should be barred from running for the Knesset for seven years was a terrible stain on the Israeli justice system.
Surely the legal minds entrusted with putting Netanyahu's desire to clean up the Likud are smart enough to come of with a way to bar those with a truly criminal record from representing the Likud without also barring someone who tried to stop Oslo via nonviolent protest activities.
Yes, Feiglin blocked roads in protest. And while I personally oppose such activities, it would be the height of hypocrisy to claim that this activity is grounds to bar someone from running for the Knesset when at the very same time the Labor Party's chairman and candidate for prime minister was not only responsible for illegally blocking roads but also for illegally closing
down Israel's ports, destroying property and illegally seizing control of factory facilities as the leader of the Histadrut labor union.
Netanyahu doesn't want to get rid of Feiglin because of his "criminal" record. He wants him out of the Likud because the competing parties are using Feiglin's presence in the Party to label Likud as "radical right".
And since ideology is really the issue, only ideology can be the legitimate basis to bar Feiglin.
Netanyahu can come up with a Likud "declaration of principles" and bar anyone from a party position who refuses to accept the declaration.
"Territorial concessions within the framework of an agreement reached with the Palestinians must be both preceded by and anchored in Palestinian security compliance."
That's a principle that Feiglin won't sign off on because it implies acceptance of the possibility of territorial concessions.
That's a principle that MK Uzi Landau, though labeled by Likud opponents as a "right wing extremist", could embrace.
It is a principle that sends a clear message to Israeli voters as to just where Likud is positioned: willing to entertain the possibility of territorial concessions but rejecting unilateral retreats.
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