The Quiet Revolution

By Moshe Feiglin

[On Sunday, May 12, the Central Committee of the Likud party
was convened to discuss Prime Minister Sharon's declaration
in favor of establishing a Palestinian state in Eretz Israel.
Jewish Leadership was instrumental in convening the Center,
and also in influencing the delegates to reject Sharon's
proposal not to vote on the issue. Binyamin Netanyahu proposed
a resolution stating that a Palestinian state would not arise
west of the Jordan River, and this resolution was passed
despite Sharon's opposition.]
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What actually took place last night in the Likud Center?
A superficial glance at the headlines in the papers this
morning gives the impression that the issue was a contest
between the old knight, Sharon and the young knight, Netanyahu,
in which Netanyahu won the day. This is the way the media
work - they lack depth, and go for dramas of this kind.
But what happened yesterday in the Likud Center was totally
different. What we saw were the first buds of deep processes,
seeds first planted by the Jewish Leadership movement six years
ago in the consciousness of the believing public, seeds that
developed into young seedlings that were planted in the political
system two years ago.

Those who see the overall picture, are familiar with the
development of the situation, and understand the processes
in depth, also understand that Netanyahu's victory yesterday
was for his ego only. Netanyahu was drawn into the move,
that was initiated by Jewish Leadership and the members
faithful to Eretz Israel in the Likud, because he had no
choice: He could not adopt a stance diametrically opposite
to the Rightist line he has been pushing in hundreds of
interviews that he has given recently. However the precedent
has been created that things said here must also be maintained
there, because there are people who demand this.

Netanyahu wasn't the winner yesterday, nor, obviously, was
Sharon. Fundamentally both of them lost. And who won? The
winner yesterday was the Jewish people that once again
confirmed its loyalty to its country and its values and
proved that it has the capability and desire to fight for
this loyalty. Since the aims of the two leaders who fought
one another yesterday in the Likud Center are not synchronized
with the basic objective of the Jewish people, then the
process in which the Jewish people returns to itself will
inevitably cause the fall of both of them.

The Likud and its Center are a micro-cosmos of the Jewish
people, where you can find the traditional Israeli who does not
deny his identity and loves his homeland; the middle class that
supports the economy; all the ethnic groups; secular, and
religious Jews. There, in the Likud, you can find the Jewish
people.

The victory of the Jewish people yesterday takes two forms:
The first and immediate one is the tactical achievement -
halting the train of the Palestinian state. It appears that
when the struggle is waged in the right battlefield it is
possible to block moves that seem irreversible, and return
the genie to the bottle. It appears that a correct ideological
analysis, that is, understanding Israel's need for Jewish
leadership, leads inevitably to the micro-cosmos through which
the National Camp leads the country. In this way a group of
people, although lacking great political experience, arrived
at the correct tactical solution.

However, the Jewish people's victory was much greater because
of the tactical problem caused yesterday to Ariel Sharon on
his path towards the establishment of a Palestinian state.
For the first time since the first Camp David conference in
1978 (Begin-Sadat), the ideological background, that which
will decide the future of the Jewish peopleand Eretz Israel,
has returned from the edges to the center (in every sense of
the word). A few weeks ago it seemed that a Palestinian state
was a foregone conclusion. The protests voiced against this
(if any) came from the Rightist and religiousfringes, that
no one treated seriously. It now appears that this struggle,
instead of dying down, burst out with tremendous energy…
in the center of the political map, in the heart of the
Israeli governing pary.

This is no longer just a tactical victory, but a quiet
revolution, a strategic revolution. It is now obvious to
everyone that the basic assumptions of the Jewish Leadership
movement are correct. President Bush displayed no interest
yesterday in the doings of the leaders of the minority
parties, but in those of members of the Likud Center.
They interested him for one simple reason - in contrast to
the others, they are playing in the real court, that of the
national leadership, where activities are related to reality.
Now let's make a simple calculation: If it is possible to
influence matters in such a way and advance issues within
the Likud, even before the thousands of new members of the
Likud associated with the Jewish Leadership movement have
expressed their views in the primaries, even before we have
elected a single new member of the Center representing the
movement, just imagine what it will be possible to do when
hundreds of the members of the Center will belong to the
Jewish Leadership movement, when many of the Likud MKs will
be representatives of the movement, and when, with G-d's help,
a Jewish Leadership person stands at the head of the
governing party of the National Camp.