Feiglin predicts: Expect a surprise

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
moshe feiglin 298.88 aj (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
moshe feiglin 298.88 aj
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
For a man standing in third place on the eve of the Likud Party leadership race, Moshe Feiglin seems surprisingly relaxed as he strolls through the lobby of the Renaissance Hotel in Jerusalem. "A person of faith is not nervous," he tells The Jerusalem Post, smiling. He's not daunted by the polls. "Expect a surprise," he says, and argues that it's a show of his strength that, while figures like Ariel Sharon and Shaul Mofaz wanted to oust him from the party, he is still a player within it, while they are not. Feiglin so unequivocally supports Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria that he seems startled when reporters asked him his position on the possible division of Jerusalem. "Is that a joke?" he asks. Among the flyers he plans to hand out on Monday at the polls is one with a photograph of Sharon, Binyamin Netanyahu and Silvan Shalom voting in the Knesset. It states: "Don't vote for those who voted for the evacuation." He has garnered support from the former Hof Aza Regional Council spokesman Eran Sternberg, but not from the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. A number of its leaders are pulling for Netanyahu. In a statement released early Sunday, Feiglin attacked the council members, asserting that they were like "an abused wife" who returns to her husband. "Thanks to the council, Bibi [Netanyahu] now knows he can carry out the next evacuation," says Feiglin. He came in 39th on the last Likud list, a showing that should have qualified him to run for the Knesset. But he was barred from the list by chairman of the Central Elections Committee, Supreme Court Justice Mishael Cheshin, because he had served six months in jail following his 1997 conviction for seditious acts, publications and unlawful assembly during his anti-Oslo protests. Enough time has now passed since his conviction to allow him to run for office. A crew of supporters have come to listen to him. He speaks of a historic moment in which voters can restore Jewish values to the governing party, to combat the minority who are trying to rob the state of that identity. This minority, he says, "has taken from us the courage to dream of a Jewish nation."
  • Moshe Feiglin was born in Israel in 1962 and grew up in a traditional home.
  • He graduated from Or Etzion Yeshiva, and served as a captain in a combat unit in the IDF. He is the author of the book Where There Are No Men, publishes numerous articles and appeares on international TV and radio frequently.
  • He and his wife, Tzippy, have five children and one grandchild. They live in Karnei Shomron.