Well, Binyamin Netanyahu has succeeded in purging the Likud list of Moshe Feiglin for the upcoming elections. While Bibi has framed this move as, respectively, "showing criminals the way out," and clearing the party of "negative elements," as well as an attempt to "burn away the extremist margins," it's pretty clear that all he was ever really doing was pandering to what he sees as the so-called "center." Feh.
In 1997, Moshe Feiglin was convicted of sedition and unlawful assembly in opposition to the government of Yitzhak Rabin. In other words, he was convicted of having engaged in non-violent civil disobedience against the implementation of the Oslo Accords, a disasterous policy (Oslo) that even most of Israel's moderate left now acknowledges as tragically flawed. Other prominent Israeli politicians have gotten away with far worse conduct (think arguably illegal strikes that shut down the entire country), but Feiglin was made an example because his civil disobedience occurred in the summer of 1995 and was seen as contributory toward the atmosphere that led to Yigal Amir's decision to assassinate Rabin in November of that year. Whether or not this was true, it was a common public perception, fueled enthusiastically by the media and swallowed whole by a nation in shock and searching for answers.
Matin Luther King, Jr., was arrested on four or five occasions for civil disobedience and was convicted and served time at least once for attempting to desegregate government buildings. Few people today would dare to call him a "criminal" or a "negative element," other than those, perhaps, who still favor the now discredited public policies that he was protesting. And while I don't try to equate Dr. King and Moshe Feiglin (men of very different temperment, style and philosophy), neither would I try to claim that the validity of their protest activities rises or falls upon my or anyone else's approval of either their personalities or their respective causes.
Back in 2003, when Feiglin first sought to run on the Likud ticket, he was barred by an Israeli law that prohibits a person convicted of a crime from running for office for seven years. There's an exception if the candidate receives a ruling that the crime didn't involve moral turpitude, but the head of the Central Elections Committee ruled that Feiglin's did, and Israel's Supreme Court failed to disagree. Earlier this year, Feiglin finally won an appeal from that ruling.
But, regardless, Feiglin's seven years are up. So, suddenly, the Basic Law wasn't righteous enough for Bibi, who wasn't happy about how well Feiglin polled in the Likud primaries. It didn't look good, so he needed a sacrificial lamb to throw to that proverbial "center." Pitch out that extremist! For all the good it'll do him.
Well, I see Feiglin has now bowed out of the race, having reached some sort of agreement that his name will be cleared by the party so he can run again in the future as a Likud candidate. Why he'd want to at this point is beyond me.
Interesting observation in today's JP:
If Netanyahu wants a list that will be attractive to voters planning to defect to Kadima, he will have to continue being ruthless toward the less popular of his colleagues. Ironically, this means that the MKs who were most instrumental in pushing Sharon out of the party, "the rebels," have the most to worry about from "hit lists" that will begin issuing from Netanyahu's surroundings over the next few days.
I stand by my implication here that Bibi has no room in "his" party for men, or women, of conviction, regardless of their criminal record. It's a sin.
