Monday, January 9, 2012

Why Support Moshe Feiglin?

Many Israelis are watching the American primaries with great interest because the outcome will affect them. 

In Israel the Likud party is holding primaries of its own.  On January 31st Moshe Feiglin will be running against Bibi Netanyahu for the chairmanship of the Likud party.  If Feiglin wins he could be the next prime minister of Israel. 

Just as the American president can affect Israel, the prime minister of Israel affects Americans, particularly Jewish Americans.  Here is a list of 10 reasons why I think Americans will benefit from a victory for Moshe Feiglin.
  1. Moshe Feiglin wants to cut off American Foreign aid to Israel.
  2. Moshe Feiglin will support the Israeli troops in fighting terror which will make Israel a safer country to visit (or one day to live).
  3. Feiglin will be harsher on convicted terrorists.  Longer prison sentences, no more prisoner exchanges, and the possibility of the death penalty.  This will not only make Israel safer, but it will act as a deterrence for global terrorism that has reached the shores of America.
  4. Feiglin will go after rogue nations like Iran that threaten Israel and the world.
  5. Feiglin views Jews everywhere as the responsibility of Israel.  If Jews anywhere are in trouble he will make it Israel's priority to help them.
  6. Feilgin wants to separate "religion" from politics.  He opposes "religious" parties with narrow agendas.  I believe that a Feilgin administration would remove governmental stumbling blocks from Reform, Conservative, and other brands of American Judaism, and allow the Israeli public to decide what kind of Judaism it wants.
  7. Feiglin is committed to building more houses throughout Israel which will bring housing prices down making housing more affordable for Israelis and for Americans who want to buy 2nd (or if they make aliyah primary) homes in Israel.
  8. Feiglin will make sure that Jewish historic and religious places like Maarat Hamachpela are always open to Jews and people of all faiths.
  9. Feiglin wants Jewish education for every child.  More Jewish education means more Jewish educators, many of whom may come to the United states and help improve our Jewish educational system.
  10. Feiglin wants to make the Temple Mount into a place of worship for Jews and all the nations and not just for Muslims.
 If Feiglin is elected I plan to bring a group from Omaha to Israel for pesach for our first real seder in Jerusalem.  May it be God's will.

8 comments:

  1. With regard to #3, I don't think the possibility of the death penalty will make Israel any safer or act as a deterrent (especially to terrorists). Israel is already quite safe, as Israelis always inform Americans, and -- what's more -- the death penalty simply isn't a deterrent to crime. Here are a couple of recent posts I've written on the subject of the death penalty and deterrence: http://kohenari.net/post/14066564338 and http://kohenari.net/post/14118285264

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  2. I am not talking about other terrorists. In Israel terrorists go free and engage in other terror attacks. A dead terrorist can't do that.

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  3. OK, so you're just talking about a specific deterrent, not a general one. The same would be true of murderers. If we kill all killers, they can't kill anyone else. But life imprisonment would serve the same purpose and Israel could simply decide to stop prisoner transfers. But, also, I think it's important to look at the numbers. How many terrorist attacks are we talking about? Isn't it actually the case that there have been very, very few terrorist attacks since the wall/fence was constructed?

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  4. Feiglin is against the security fence. He doesn't think that a country as strong as Israel should have to lock itself up to defend itself from terrorists.

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  5. Hi Rabbi,

    I promise to make sure that Moshe visits with your group when you come to Israel!

    With love of Israel,

    Rob Muchnick
    Manhigut Yehudit, US Director
    rmuchnick@manhigut.org

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