Likud MKs to target Feiglin supporters in ads, letters

By SHELLY PAZ
A group of Likud MKs hope to stop central committee member Moshe Feiglin from making the party's Knesset list in Monday's party primary by appealing directly to his likely supporters. The veteran lawmakers, who call themselves "The Land of Israel Faithful in the Likud," are launching an advertising campaign on Thursday geared toward haredim and settlement supporters. Via religious newspapers, billboards in haredi neighborhoods and letters to the homes of settlement-backers, the group will ask for their votes in the primary and remind them that they also opposed the 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Among the Likud MKs involved are Gilad Erdan, Reuven Rivlin, Yuli Edelstein, Moshe Kahlon and former MKs Ayoub Kara and Michael Ratzon, who are also running in next week's primary. The ads will appear in the Makor Rishon, Besheva and Yediot Yesha newspapers, among others. In the campaign, the lawmakers call on right-wingers to vote for Knesset candidates who fought against disengagement. "Remember what happened to our friends, the evacuated residents of Gush Katif, who suffer to this day from the state's lack of [proper] treatment," the MKs' letter reads. "Families were ruined, people's spirits were broken, and what good came out of it? What did the State of Israel gain from it?" It continues, "You are allowed to vote for 12 candidates [in the primary]. Come to the polling booth and vote! And when you do so, don't forget who fought for the State of Israel: Bennie Begin, a man of values; Michael Ratzon, who paid with his seat for his fight against the disengagement; Gilad Erdan, Reuven Rivlin, Moshe Kahlon, Yechiel Leiter, Ayoub Kara, Yuli Edelstein, Leah Nass, Yossi Fuchs and newcomers such as former chief of General Staff Moshe 'Boogie' Ya'alon." The MKs warn that the fight over the Jewish people's home will reach a climax in the next Knesset. "We all wish for peace, but not at the cost of evacuating Jewish people and damaging the state's security," they say. Feiglin's headquarters said that "Netanyahu and his people have been making a living from the millions of shekels Feiglin's supporters put in the party's coffers. Over the years, they have appealed to Feiglin's people and asked for the support of right-wingers and the people living in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, but when Feiglin or [National Union/National Religious Party MK] Effie Eitam asks to be elected with the Likud, they are treated brutally." Meanwhile Wednesday, MK Michael Eitan asked the Central Elections Committee to order Kadima to remove anti-Netanyahu ads that say, 'Bibi? I don't believe him,' since they were not signed, as committee regulations require. Before Eitan's petition was filed, Kadima campaign adviser Eyal Arad told Army Radio that the unsigned ads had been removed and replaced with signed ones. Elections committee chairman Eliezer Rivlin told Kadima to respond to the petition by 10 a.m. on Thursday.