There’s a group floating around on facebook that’s trying to sign people up to Likud who are scared of Moshe Feiglin, alright, so I tried talking to them. They’re really afraid of him for some reason. I doubt they’ve ever read any of his books or articles and are basing their fear on Yediot Aharonot and Channel 2. Some people just don’t like looking past their TV sets.

Here’s a translation to English of what I told them. One of them asked me the following:

Rafi, I suggest that instead of telling us we don’t disagree on anything, get to the point of the matter. Do you think there should be a separation of religion and state? Do you believe we need to change the system of government? Do you think that it’s more important to worry about working citizens than it is about outposts and yeshivas? Let’s hear. Maybe you’ll show us that Feiglin is the new Likudnik and we just didn’t know it.

Here’s my answer.

Do I think there needs to be a separation of religion and state? Yes, in every private matter. The Feiglinites, and Feiglin himself, favors the maximum amount of personal freedom possible. For example, we are against any forced involvement of the Rabanut in private life, including marriage, divorce, keeping Shabbat, and we favor that every Jew decide for himself what he wants to observe and what he doesn’t. With regard to public matters, meaning the parts of Judaism that are directed to the public and not to the individual – like the justice system and how it should be designed, tort law, theft and burglary, interest laws and monetary policy, these need to be according to the spirit of Judaism. We the Jews are not a religion. We are a nation.

We need to take a look into our past  and build a true Jewish state that is based on absolute freedom for the individual, Jewish tradition, a Jewish justice system and the like.

We certainly need to change the system of government. 100%. Local representation for the Knesset that will allow local communities to form. Every city should decide what it wants to tax and what not to and how much, so that people can decide where to live, whether they want to pay more taxes and get more benefits, or pay less taxes and get less benefits. The freedom to choose! The Knesset needs to be responsible only for national issues like the army, defense, and courts. More power for the local governments, much less for the knesset, and every city should have its knesset representatives elected by that city.

Regarding the outpost question, the question itself is rigged (and might I add reveals a fair level of hatred – that I didn’t write to him). Feiglin favors human rights for everyone. EVERYONE. Including the leftist who doesn’t want to serve in the “West Bank” (Judea and Samaria), all the way to the settler who wants to live on some hilltop anywhere in the land of Israel. We Feiglinites don’t see the People of Israel as different groups. If you forgo the rights of a settler, in that he is a human being, you will eventually forgo the rights of every citizen of this country. We are all individuals. To see one group as better than another is wrong.

Regarding Yeshivas, it is not the government’s responsibility to fund any Yeshiva at all. Learning Torah is a private matter and should be funded privately. Freedom for all!