Moshe Feiglin and his Zehut (Identity) party have emerged as the surprise package in the Israeli elections and, with polls showing a close race between the main blocs, could hold the balance of power after the April 9 vote.
Feiglin, a kippa-wearing resident of the West Bank settlement of Karnei Shomron, east of Kfar Saba, advocates a bizarre mix of extreme right-wing and libertarian politics.
His support for the legalization of cannabis has pushed the issue to the forefront of the election campaign and has resulted in enthusiastic support from young Israelis, with more than 8 percent of voters aged between 18 and 24 saying they intend to vote for Zehut.
“2019 will be the year of legalization,” Feiglin said. “We will kill ourselves over it. No one is going to establish a government in Israel without legalization.”
Only a few weeks ago Zehut was the butt of political jokes along the lines of “they must have been stoned when they wrote the party manifesto” but recent polls show that the party will pass the minimum 3.25 percent threshold for representation in the Knesset and is predicted to win between 4 and 6 seats in the 120-member chamber.
The polls predict a close race between the right-religious bloc led by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and the center-left bloc led by former top general Benny Gantz’s new Blue and White party, supported from outside by Arab parties.
It is inconceivable that a coalition headed by Benny Gantz would include Zehut but Feiglin says he will only consider joining a Netanyahu-led government if the price is right.
“I’m not in anyone’s pocket. I will go where we can have the most impact,” he says. “We have our eye on the finance and education ministries, where we will be able to implement our platform.”
Worried that Zehut is taking votes away from the Likud, Netanyahu has promised to examine the possibility of legalizing cannabis, saying “it’s possible that it will happen.”
Feiglin first came to prominence in the 1990s when he headed the Zo Artzeinu (This Is Our Land) non-violent, civil disobedience protest movement against the Oslo Peace Accords signed between Israel and the PLO. He led protesters in blocking roads and was sentenced to six months in prison in 1997 for sedition, later commuted to community service.
In 2000, Feiglin joined the Likud and headed the Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) faction within the party. He served as a Likud Knesset member between 2013-15, during which time he was also deputy Knesset speaker.
Manhigut Yehudit managed to recruit many settlers to the Likud and acted as a disciplined faction challenging the leadership of Netanyahu, prompting accusations that the group was actually an outside entity, infiltrating the Likud and operating as a separate party within the party. Feiglin eventually quit the Likud in 2015, much to Netanyahu’s delight, after a poor showing in the party primaries.
Feiglin claims that before the election lists were closed in February he refused a number of offers to merge with other right-wing parties. It appears that his strategy was correct and that Zehut is now attracting voters from these parties, along with predominantly secular voters attracted by the legalization platform.
Ironically, the left-wing Meretz has long advocated legalizing marijuana but this seems to be lost on the young, hipster audiences, who are packing out Zehut election meetings across the country.
The detailed Zehut platform champions libertarian principles, seeking to cut state interference in day to day life in the economic and civil spheres. In addition to legalizing marijuana, Zehut also proposes a free market economy, separation of religion and state, ending the state’s control over land sales, cutting government ministries, reducing the cost of living and a voucher system for schools.
But the Zehut manifesto also states that the party “strives to improve society and the world through loyalty to the G-d of Israel,” aiming to lead the State of Israel as a Jewish state.
Much of the platform resembles the policies advocated by the firebrand American-born rabbi, Meir Kahane, leader of the Kach party that was banned in the 1980s as racist.
Indeed, Shmuel Sackett, the co-founder of Zehut, who currently serves as the chair of Zehut International, was a member of Kahane’s Jewish Defense League in the US.
He describes himself as “a proud student” of Kahane, and his son, Rabbi Binyamin Kahane, who led the extreme right-wing Kahane Chai party after his father’s assassination.
Rejecting Palestinian nationalism, Zehut proposes nullifying the peace agreements with the Palestinians, reconquering the entire West Bank and Gaza Strip, and extending Israeli sovereignty to the entire area while offering financial incentives to Palestinians to emigrate.
Those who remain will be given a choice of permanent residency without the right to vote if they pledge their allegiance to Israel or full citizenship after a lengthy process of unspecified duration, if they are willing to serve in the IDF and pass a loyalty test, which includes a language test and recommendations.
The party also advocates relocating the Knesset and the Supreme Court to Jerusalem’s Old City, adjacent to the Temple Mount, which it calls the “beating heart of the entire nation.” A synagogue will also be built on the Temple Mount.
Greater Jerusalem will be expanded to include Bethlehem and Gush Etzion to the south, Beit Shemesh and Modi’in to the West, Ramallah to the north and Ma’aleh Adumim and Jericho to the east.
Zehut also calls for easing restrictions on citizens bearing arms, for Israel to assassinate Iran’s leaders and an end to receiving US aid.
It is doubtful whether many of the potential Zehut voters are familiar with the party’s radical right-wing agenda, even though Moshe Feiglin himself makes no attempt to hide it.
It is also highly unlikely that such policies will be even considered by the next government, even if Zehut is brought into the coalition.
Still, it remains rather disconcerting that tens of thousands of young Israelis, attracted by the prospect of legalizing marijuana, could be voting into the government a politician with a radical – some would say dangerous – agenda considered anathema by most Israelis. ■