Moshe Feiglin

Iran should be on her knees thanking Israel for her existence

rafifarber The Jewish Libertarian Blog , ,

I got this from a friend of mine named Aviv who’s working with me on Moshe Feiglin’s campaign. I read it and I can’t believe I never thought of it before. Translated from Aviv’s Hebrew:

I had an interesting thought. The Iran-Iraq War began in 1980 and lasted for almost a decade. In 1981, one year into the Iran-Iraq War, Israel blew up the Iraqi nuclear reactor and was met with harsh condemnation from the entire world. It’s reasonable to assume that if not for Israel’s attack, Iraq would have had nuclear weapons that would have surely been used first and foremost against its bitter enemy – Iran. It follows, then, that without even intending to, Israel saved Iran from a nuclear holocaust at the hands of Sadaam Hussein. And what do we get in return? An Iranian nuclear program against us.

Why does no Israeli leader mention this fact? Instead of the poor little kid who doesn’t want to get beat up and tries to convince the world that the neighborhood bully is a dangerous threat and they need to take care of it approach – we have to come at Iran with an offensive approach with the tone of – What are you bitching about? Say thank you that you’re even breathing right now. We run this part of the world, and without us you’d have been vaporized by Sadaam’s nukes.

Imagine that after Ahmadinejad’s speech at the UN, our Prime Minister gets up and instead of repating the defensive mantra “We went through the holocaust, and there must not be a second one” – he looks at the Iranian midget in the eye and tells him – you little pisher – you’re embarrassing yourself. It’s only thanks to me that you’re even alive right now, and you dare threaten me? Sit down and be quiet. We are the masters of the Middle East, and if you dare raise your head, you’ll take a good beating.

May we soon merit bold and confident leadership – confident in itself and God.

In case any of you have any doubts, that leader is Moshe Feiglin. And you know what Ron Paul has to do with this?

NOTHING. Just like it should be.

How I explained my Ron Paul support to a fellow Jew

rafifarber The Jewish Libertarian Blog , ,

Use at your own risk. This is an answer I gave to a fellow Jew who was concerned about Ron Paul’s Israel stance. Not the foreign aid issue, but his calling Gaza a “concentration camp” and seeming unwillingness to help Israel if she found herself in existential danger.

—————-

OK, I guess I’ll put in my final 10 agorot. Take it or leave it. I’ll just have bullet points, I don’t have time to adequately defend what I’m saying here. Just writing it so you can get the surface of my thought process. I’m not trying to convince you of anything. I warn you that I have a radically strong faith that is either blinding me to reality or helping me see the truth. I honestly can’t tell because if I’m blind, I’m blind. This is just what my mind is telling me based on what I’ve seen so far in my life.

1) I take it as a given that Israel will never be destroyed again. This is it, we’re here to stay, no one will destroy our sovereignty. This is an axiom, accept it or not, it’s what my beliefs are based on.

2) You’re right. Ron Paul does not want a special relationship with Israel. To that end, you’re right that if Israel were in existential danger, Ron Paul wouldn’t lift a finger on his own. I am aware of this. But if you go back to point 1), that’s irrelevant for me. And if you’re worried and don’t accept point 1, then if Congress decided to lift its finger, Ron Paul would follow. He would not interfere and discourage congress or go to war kicking and screaming. He would just let congress be because he believes in the separation of Powers religiously. Ron Paul may be a lutheran in name. But his Bible, the book he makes his life decisions on, is the Constitution.

3) Ron Paul is not a Jew. He doesn’t understand the kind of subconscious disgust and revoltion it causes in us Jews when he says we put someone in “concentration camps”. If I were Ron’s campaign manager, I would advise him to apologize for using that word, or at least vow never to use it again. If he wants to distinguish between manzanar and auschwitz, then use the word Internment Camp at least. Even if distasteful, it’s not disgusting. But to him, “concentration camp” is just a word. His grandparents weren’t murdered and burned. He doesn’t have that sensitivity, and we can’t blame him for it. He used it carelessly, and as we all know, Ron Paul is a phenomenally bad speaker.

3) I don’t want a special relationship with America. I want to be friends with them, but I don’t see any of this “special bond” nonsense. They are Esav, we are Yakov, we’re brothers but we are on different paths. Our special bond is with God, not America. Not with the White House. God doesn’t want us to have a special relationship with anyone. We are a nation that dwells alone and we are not counted among the nations. Any attempt to bow to the next Pharaoh Necho will backfire. God will take care of us from his Big Oval Office in the sky.

4) In the video you sent, watch again from 2:40 to the end. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYNLXYLM44c&feature=player_embedded#%21 He clearly says he has a “personal opinion” that he would not act on because as president he has no right to act on his own peronsal opinions. I trust Ron Paul never to violate the constitution in favor of his personal opinions. If you don’t, then don’t vote for him.

5) He is not a flip flopper on anything. Once again, he has personal opinions that contradict what he says he would do as President. Those are two different planes entirely. He’s running for President. He’s not running for Ronpaulident. He says the US should trade with Israel and be friends even though he thinks we’re doing bad things because he believes in the Jeffersonian ideal of friendship with all, entangling alliances with none. What we do is none of his “presidential” business and he says that openly. 

6) Go back and read Moshe Feiglin’s article on the Marmara. You’ll see he agrees with everything Paul says, except Feiglin doesn’t use the word “concentration camp” because Feiglin is a Jew. Gaza is our fault. We ARE the aggressors, because we’re locking them up there with nowhere to go. Just like America must come to terms with its foreign policy contributing to 9/11, we must come to terms with our own evil policies contributing to terrorism. The land is God’s. To give it to them is evil, and Gaza is OUR fault entirely. We left the land, said it isn’t ours, said it’s THEIRS, destroyed homes and ripped apart families and caused kids and parents to commit suicide in despair that they had lost their lives and incomes. And now we have the CHUTZPAH to blockade the place?! What are we mad? We are the sinners. They’re just arabs. We’ve got to pay them to get out of our land and we’ve got to move back in, or otherwise get out of this whole country and call it quits back to Galut. And the only president who wouldn’t lift a finger if we paid them all to get the hell out our country and killed whatever terrorists remained? It’s the same guy who wouldn’t lift a finger if we were in trouble either. Ron Paul.

7) I think I addressed most things here.

Good Shabbos to you all.

Another Feiglin Article I wrote today

rafifarber The Jewish Libertarian Blog , , , ,

Featured on Israelmatzav:

Moshe Feiglin runs again – this time he could actually win

Guest Post by Rafi Farber

Late Sunday night, Netanyahu announced that, along with internal elections to choose a new Likud Central Committee and local representatives, the chairmanship of the party itself would be up for grabs. Moshe Feiglin answered the challenge immediately and announced his candidacy. Bibi v Feiglin round IV is now set for January 31, 2012.

All the political pundits in Israel immediately started asking why Netanyahu was doing this. Army radio, Galei Tzahal as they call it here, was abuzz with speculation. Political commentators shot off a bunch of sophisticated columns in all the newspapers explaining that Netanyahu is doing this to “take advantage of his popularity”. I will tell you now that this is false, and I will explain exactly why.

Back in April 2010, the Likud, for the first time in 10 years, was about to have elections to choose a new Likud Central Committee. Netanyahu fought really hard to postpone them because he knew at the time that if they happened back then, he would lose control of the LCC to the right wing of his party who reject him. Eventually the case got to the Supreme Court, those “guard dogs of democracy” as they call themselves, who allowed him to push off democratic elections. In the meantime, Netanyahu’s goal was to strengthen his base in the party by signing up a bunch of people who would vote for him in the next primary.

During that time, there has a been a deluge of even more new Likud members to the right of Bibi, voters that don’t exactly like his whole “building freeze” and uprooting and expulsion of Jewish towns like Migron and Havat Gilad these past few months, not to mention his handing over Hebron to the Arabs and signing the defunct Wye Accords.

And who was Bibi able to sign up to his side during this time? Pretty much nobody.

When Feiglin first for ran for Likud Chairman in 2003, he got 3% of the vote. When he ran again in 2005, he placed 3rd at 13% of the vote, more than quadrupling his previous support. When he ran again in 2007, he doubled again and got 24% of the vote. And that was back before all these new people signed up to the party.

Bibi is not doing this because he’s trying to “take advantage of his popularity”. Within the Likud party membership, he has very little. What he’s actually doing is preparing the ground to jump ship.

 

He knows he doesn’t have the numbers for the overwhelming victory he desperately needs to secure his place at the head of Likud. He knows we’re too strong by now. He knows that Feiglin will get at least 30-35% of the Likud vote, and that’s being conservative. If Feiglin scores that low in this next election, it will still be a  high enough percentage for Bibi to say, “Well, these Feiglinites are too strong. We have to get out of here and form a new Kadima II with Ehud Barak.”

This is not just speculation. The cover story of Monday’s Israel HaYom newspaper daily was, “Netanyahu: I did not guarantee refuge for Barak.”

Translation: “I did not promise political refuge for Barak.”

They know it’s in the back of his mind.

If Feiglin scores any higher than 30-35%, and he likely will, Netanyahu will run out of Likud as fast as possible. What will happen then? I guess we’ll all find out, but the party will be left to Feiglin.

The other possibility is that Feiglin outright wins the election. Any of these three possibilities spell the same conclusion. Netanyahu is on his way out of the party. That’s why he’s doing this now. He needs a new party with Barak to continue his plans to break left.

Moshe Feiglin Will Win on January 31

rafifarber The Jewish Libertarian Blog , , , ,

I was hitching a ride to work today as I often do, and army radio was playing. They were talking about the upcoming Likud primaries and why Netanyahu put the Likud chairmanship up for grabs. One of the talking heads said something like this:

“Likud is very unlike the other parties because in Likud you generally do not run against a popular party leader. In Likud, it’s better to be on the leader’s side than against him.”

I was in the back seat, smiling wryly at the cute, clueless little pundits. “Tell that to Feiglin,” I murmured in the backseat, in Hebrew, hoping the driver would hear me and take the bait.

He didn’t even have to. Five seconds later, Moshe was already on the air, talking to the cute, clueless little pundits. “Hello Mr. Feiglin,” the pundit began.

“Hello hello,” Moshe responded, as always. And then, the predictable, ever-repeated, boring clueless-little-pundit question:

“Why are you running, Mr. Feiglin? You have no chance of winning.”

At this point, my wry little smile widened to an all out grin. I love this stuff!

When Moshe’s time was up, my ride starting talking. “Feiglin failed. He’s been failing for over 10 years. He won’t win,” he said. I became annoyed…for about 3 seconds. But then I asked him the following question:

“Are you a Likud member?”

“No, of course not,” he said.

“Well,” I said, “Then what does your opinion matter? You can’t even vote in this election.”

That’s when I realized, all the naysayers, all the people that keep saying over and over and over again that Jewish leadership is impossible, that Israel is condemned to be the world’s doormat forever, they are all out of this game. They don’t matter, because they’ve willingly silenced themselves by refusing to play. They never joined Likud, and are therefore irrelevant. The only people that matter are the Likud members, and those are the ones who DO believe, which is why they joined the game in the first place. This is why we will win. Everyone and everything else that says we can’t, the cute little clueless radio pundits and the nice driver guy, are just background noise who have no vote.

The most difficult dialectic in Judaism, I believe, is that between the inexorability of redemption and the Divine command to redeem ourselves. Why should we do anything if redemption is inevitable anyway? The answer is that it is not inevitable that the redemption of the Jewish people will just happen out of thin air. Rather, it is inevitable that the Jewish people will, as a nation, answer that Divine command and redeem themselves.

Over the next month and a half, Moshe Feiglin and the rest of us who believe in a real Jewish State, in our Jewish identities, and in the Jewish People’s destiny to repair the world under God, will have the wonderful opportunity to once again speak to this Nation. To explain to her that we are sick and tired of measuring the “strength” of our leadership by the amount of time it takes them to put out a diplomatic fire, or by how quickly they can appease Turkey before we lose another “ally,” or by how quickly he can scrounge up UN votes to scuttle yet another meaningless international condemnation and score another “victory” for the “proud” Jews.

To tell this People that we believe in them, we believe in our nation, we believe in ourselves and our duty to live in the land that God gave us, our right and duty to worship freely on our Holy Temple Mount, our Divine charge to speak to the Western civilization we, as Jews, gave birth to. A world now mired in profound economic and spiritual confusion, a world we must equip with spiritual and moral guidance where it is so sorely needed.

It will be a fun, exciting, therapeutic, even cathartic battle for both sides. We need to be calm and understand that nobody in the nationalist camp actually disagrees with us. Some simply don’t believe a destiny-driven Jewish existence is possible.

We will tell them, once again, that it is. And not only that, but that it is inevitable. Not that it will just happen randomly when the Divine egg-timer in the sky happens to go *bing*, but that it is inevitable that we will rise up as a nation and redeem ourselves, and God will be there with us when we do.

The only question is, are you, as a human being with free will, going to be part of it? Our numbers have gone way up since the last time Moshe ran in 2007, and all the naysayers can’t even vote. Don’t be distracted by the naysayers. They are just that: they have no say. They’re not in the game.

But you do have a say. If you want it. Go to Jewishisrael.org now and donate. Help us wake this People up and let’s show the world what the Jewish People can do!

Netanyahu will quit Likud in February – Hopefully

rafifarber The Jewish Libertarian Blog , , ,

We’ve got 80 days until internal Likud elections. I will be running for a seat on the Likud Central Committee as well as the head of the local Likud branch in Karnei Shomron, my home town. With God’s help and of course endorsement by Manhigut Yehudit, I will win both.

I just got this in my email from the Likudnik website. Translation follows:

When the numbers for the allocation of Likud central committee seats were published, it shocked the party leadership. It is now clear that Judea and Samaria will now constitute a majority in the central committee. It all started in 1992 when the Likud Constitution was ratified by Benjamin Netanyahu, who was the Likud head at the time. The idea was to bring in forces into the Likud which were until then inactive: Judea and Samaria, and small townships. But now it seems that the Golem is rising up against its creators and Netanyahu understood this week at a Likud faction meeting the depth of the problem, and his advisors brought up the idea of once again postponing the elections and/or changing the seat allotment.

However, when they brought up the idea they didn’t take into account that any postponement of the elections would constitute contempt of court because…they declared to the court that elections would take place by January 31.

It seems that the idea sunk just as it rose since the idea is absolutely undoable.

Netanyahu is scared because if he doesn’t control the Central Committee, he may as well just leave the party. This is exactly what Sharon did 6 years ago, and it is what Netanyahu will do in February.

Feiglin will hopefully rise up to take his place as Likud head as Netanyahu unites with Kadima and takes the rest of the Left Wing of Likud with him.

Interestingly enough, things will start heating up in the US at the same time as primary season starts in earnest in January. It’s going to be an exciting month, that’s for sure.

Well, there is one thing that Netanyahu can do to postpone elections. He can attack Iran. Short of that, he’s screwed.

The Terror of Obama; the Humility of Ron Paul

rafifarber The Jewish Libertarian Blog , , , ,

Not too long ago my brother and I were discussing a purely Jewish/Israeli issue. That is, what is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s greatest fear? This was around the time that Moshe Feiglin was duking it out with Netanyahu for power in the ruling Likud Party. Feiglin was about to close in on taking control of the party’s central committee and force Netanyahu literally out of the party when Netanyahu was able to secure a court order allowing him to retroactively change the party’s charter and cancel internal party elections, knowing he would lose to Feiglin.

Anyway, I told my brother that Feiglin was and is Netanyahu’s greatest fear. My brother responded with a bit of verve and said something like, “There’s one man that strikes fear in Netanyahu’s heart, and that man is Barack Obama.”

I’ve only now come to realize that my brother was right, and that this fear is the essence of what is wrong with the American Presidency. Not with Obama as a person, though I don’t have much positive to say about him, but the office of the Presidency itself. No leader should ever “fear” an American president unless they are actually at war (DECLARED by Congress) with America. They should respect him. The office has gotten so distorted and tyrannical to the world at large that America can no longer serve as an example to the world, but rather as a big global bully that thinks it runs the place.

The presidency should be an office respected by the world, occupied by a man (or woman) who is humble enough to know he is just a man, and has no authority to interfere in the affairs of other nations at a whim.

This twisting of the office of the Presidency has gone so far that the American public now thinks that it’s necessary for other countries to “fear” the President of the USA in order to maintain global order and peace. Global order and peace has come to mean wars on every continent. This is sad, dangerous, and unsustainable.

“If so-and-so Republican is elected, then Ahmadinejad won’t dare do anything stupid because he’ll fear so-and-so!” Or some such logic. I used to think like this.

If Ron Paul is elected president, would anyone “fear” him? I seriously doubt it. He would pretty much mind his own business and simply try to trade and do business with other countries. Not wave money around (borrowed from China) and threaten to bomb places that don’t cooperate.

President Ron Paul wouldn’t “threaten” Netanyahu with anything. Israel would go about its business, and unlike America who only bombs places for reasons that are at most only tangentially connected to the concept of national security as an excuse to expand American ego, Israel bombs people who actually bomb its cities.

Everyone knew that Obama had a really big ego before he was elected, and still does. So did Bush, so did Clinton, so did the other Bush. Some people thought this would be a good thing. But what we really need is someone who is humble. In the real sense of the word. Humility.

Humility doesn’t mean someone who’s constantly down on himself. It means someone who has an accurate picture of who he really is in the grander scheme of things.

The purpose of American government is to preserve the freedom and rights of Americans. The office of the Presidency is meant to preside over that function, not push people around globally.

When Ron Paul, or someone like him, is president, America will have earned the respect it deserves as the best country in the world by example, not by force. Force will only come if America is truly threatened.

And when Moshe Feiglin, or someone like him, is the leader of the Jews, the Jewish people will have earned its place in the world as the spiritual brain of humanity.

In the meantime, King Obama will continue to flaunt his borrowed Chinese and Fed printing-press money in an attempt to force the economy to worship his Presidential will.

And Netanyahu who is also a man full of himself up the wazoo, will continue to fear both Obama and Feiglin, who may yet take over the Likud party on January 31.