By Moshe Feiglin
September 26, 2006
I stopped on Tel Aviv's Hamasger Street [a working-class neighborhood filled with garages and car parts places-ed] to buy myself a sandwich. A middle-aged mechanic was also there, finishing off his sandwich before returning to work.
"Shalom Feiglin," he called to me between bites.
"Shalom," I smiled.
"You don't know me, but I voted for you..."
"Thank you," I answered. "Why did you vote for me?"
He wasn't wearing a kippah (skullcap) or any religious article. I was hoping that he would nevertheless say something like "Because I am a Jew. Jewish education and my Jewish identity are important to me." But he didn't use our belief-based terminology at all.
"You are an honest man. I'm sick and tired of all the corruption and lies," he declared and continued to chew.
I didn't have time to sit down. In the time that it took for the storekeeper to wrap my sandwich, all I had time to say to the Likudnik from Hamasger Street was "I promise you one thing. I will be there for you the next time as well. My name will be on the ballot until we win."
Eleven years ago, we started publicizing Manhigut Yehudit's ideas. Five years later we joined the Likud. For the first time in 2000 years, Israel was offered Jewish leadership in harmony with its values and faith -- leadership that believes.
The mechanic from Hamasger Street entered the voting booth last year with four possible choices. Three of them represented the faithless leadership of the past, the people that he was used to seeing on important television interviews. He could certainly choose one of them. Either the talented and skillful speaker that had already served as Prime Minister, or the candidate that had already served as Foreign Minister and Economics Minister or the candidate that seemed like the most important to rub elbows with -- the one who always answered his phone calls and helped out wherever he could.
There was one more candidate, with none of the above qualifications. The mechanic had never met him. He had never held any official government position, did not promise an easy victory in the general elections, nor had he ever assisted the mechanic in solving a bureaucratic problem. That candidate represented something completely different -- leadership that believes in and is committed to the G-d of Israel.
A third of the people who voted for me were like the mechanic. I don't know exactly what was going on inside their heads. But I do know that it was not easy for them. They had to undergo a true internal metamorphosis. I pray that these voters are just the harbingers of a much wider transformation. In any event, they have proven that the revolution is possible.
In my opinion, the mechanic from Hamasger Street is the greatest achievement of Manhigut Yehudit, not only this year, but since it has been established.
And with G-d's help, we will keep our promise to him.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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