Moshe Feiglin
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Moshe Feiglin is an Israeli right-wing politician. In 1993, he co-founded Zo Artzeinu ("This [is] our Land") movement with Shmuel Sackett to protest the Oslo Accords. He is the founding father of the Israeli civil disobedience movement that developed in protest against the accords. As a result of his activities, he was sentenced to community service for sedition.
Feiglin was born in Israel, graduated from Rabbi Chaim Druckman's yeshiva, Or Etzion, and served as a captain in a combat unit in the IDF. He is the author of the books Where There Are No Men, and War of Dreams, publishes numerous articles and appears on international TV and radio frequently. Moshe and his wife Tzippy have five children and one grandchild. They live in Karnei Shomron, Israel.
[edit] Manhigut Yehudit
Feiglin is the co-founder (along with Sackett) and president of the Manhigut Yehudit ("Jewish Leadership") faction in the Israeli Likud party. Manhigut Yehudit was started, in Feiglin's words, "to lead the State of Israel through authentic Jewish values". The movement is against religious coercion, but it wants "Jewish identity" to become Israel's culture. Its platform acknowledges that Torah law does not relate to the nuts and bolts of governing a state, but rather to personal, family and community issues.
While Feiglin says that the movement benefits secular Jews as much as religious ones, he says that the movement’s leadership will rise from "those who have a deep commitment to Torah values." Still, 30 percent of its present members are secular (2005).
Though he has been somewhat more muted on the issue of late, Feiglin has been on public record supporting the "transfer" (willing or otherwise) of Palestinians to Jordan, similar to proposals from other right-wing groups in Israel, both inside and outside the political sphere, including Herut, Hazit, Moledet, Yisrael Beiteinu, and most notably, Kach. (See also Elon Peace Plan.)
For this and other reasons, some of Feiglin's left-wing detractors sometimes accuse of him of being disturbingly similar to the late Rabbi Meir Kahane. [1] While Manhigut's co-founder, Shmuel Sackett, had close ties with Rabbis Meir and Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane, there is little evidence directly connecting Feiglin with Kahane, although there are several ideological similarities between them, such as supporting "transfer" to increase Israel's security, developing a legal system more consistent with halakha, and in restricting Israeli citizenship to Jews. [2] In 2005, Feiglin took this idea a step further and suggested that all Jews who wished to be citizens of Israel, regardless of where they lived, should be given full citizenship and voting rights. [3] Feiglin and Sackett are most distinguished from traditional Kahanism through their commitment to nonviolent protest. Kahanism is often associated with militancy and a tacit acceptance of, if not outright support for, violence. Conversely, Feiglin and Sackett are also attacked in some right-wing Religious Zionist circles (including Kahane supporters) for selling out to the Likud.
[edit] Feiglin in the Likud
In December 2005, he ran for Likud chairman and won 12.5% of the votes, coming in third out of seven candidates, after Benjamin Netanyahu and Silvan Shalom. He attempted to run for a slot on the party's Knesset list, but encountered severe opposition from Netanyahu, who delayed party elections and advocated making changes to its charter to bar anyone who has served three or more months in prison from running as a Likud MK. This would have prevented Feiglin, who served a six-month sentence in the mid-90s for civil disobedience, from running for either an MK, or leadership position in the future. Feiglin withdrew from the race on January 3, 2006, following the release of a statement from the Likud party election chairman declaring, in agreement with a prior decision by the Israeli High Court, that Feiglin's conviction was not for "dishonorable" violations of the law, allowing him to participate in future Likud affairs. [4] Given that on March 1, 2006, the vote for the knesset list was given to the membership from the party's central committee, Feiglin chances of being elected as MK have become much more likely.