Feiglin concedes election, touts primacy of Right

Likud activist Moshe Feiglin says his 24 percent showing in Likud primary indicates support for settlements.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Moshe Feiglin 311 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Moshe Feiglin 311
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Likud party primary candidate Moshe Feiglin conceded Wednesday morning that he had lost the primaries to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, but emphasized that the results entrenched the standing of the party's right wing.
"First of all, I lost the elections," Feiglin said during an interview on Channel 2's The World Today program but added that he was taking the positive viewpoint that the glass was partly full.
"One of every four Likudniks came and said yesterday that he supports the Jewish, national and proud way," Feiglin said. "Whoever is able to destroy houses in Judea and Samaria each night is not expressing Likud's stance, which supports settlement in the entirety of the land."
Feiglin won one quarter of the votes as of Wednesday morning, though some 15 percent of the vote remained uncounted. Eight percent more party voters turned out in this Likud primary than the previous one.
Netanyahu, who handily won the primary, saw his landslide as a vindication of his political positions.
"Today the real Likud won. We proved that our strength is in our unity. We will continue to lead responsibly for better education, economy, and security for all the citizens of the State of Israel," he said during an assembly of supporters at the Tel Aviv fairgrounds. "Likud turns Israel into one of the most developed nations in the world, in education, culture, and environmental protection."
Opposition party Kadima said there was no difference between Netanyahu and Feiglin, bundling the two together as extremists and accusing Likud of "holding Israel's citizens hostage" with "extreme policies."
"The Bibi-Feiglin party will continue to cause the deterioration and isolation of Israel," Kadima said in a statement. "The Likud decided tonight to continue the shared and extreme policies of Feiglin and Netanyahu, which have held Israel's citizens hostage against their will for three years already."
Zehava Gal-On of Meretz added that Likud had become the party of the settlers, putting the occupation in the center and Israel on the sidelines of its priorities.