Internal criticism against Netanyahu after second poll shows Likud weakened by attack on Bennett.
“Hamateh Haleumi Balikud (The Nationalist Likud Faction),” an internal group made up largely of party members from Judea and Samaria, criticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Tuesday for his attacks on Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett.
The criticism follows two polls that show Bennett and his party gaining strength in the wake of Likud’s attacks upon them.
In a letter addressed to Netanyahu, the group wrote, “At a time at which the Left is crumbling suicidally, we would have expected Likud to learn from the Left’s mistakes and avoid unnecessary wars.”
“Instead of saying that the question of refusing orders is not on the agenda, and that Likud is committed to construction and not to uprooting, the movement decided to attack Bennett personally and hurtfully,” the letter added. It asked, “Does the avoidance of the question of uprooting communities indicate something about your future intentions?”
Hamateh Haleumi is led by Shevah Stern, Natan Englesman and David Tzviel. It was the most publicly prominent voice for Likud activists from Judea and Samaria before the arrival of Moshe Feiglin’s Jewish Leadership faction.
I vote for the party of Bennett but on the most critical basis, the most critical that it is possible to be on this issue. This joining together of these parties was done on the most opportunist basis. try using google to find something of the OROGRAMME of this new party and you will have difficulty. That is most dangerous. Is it on the basis of “emotion” if so that again is dangerous. Is it to lessen the hand of Netanyahu and Obama that again is unsatisfactory but it is something, BUT INSUFFICIENT for the great tasks ahead. In fact Yamit82 has sely the problem but has refused to then face up to the enormity of what he is saying, on Dec 25, when he wrote this:
Everybody has seen this up close and it is the classic position of the BONAPARTIST leader as the situation moves towards (well in Israel defeat for the Jews and the end of Israel but in countries like Egypt at present towards Fascism, which is exactly where Morsi is heading, because Sharia is a form of Fascism.
Remember that Obama moves hand in hand with the Muslim Brotherhood at all times, and also hand in hand with western Antisemitism. We have learned on the issue of Srebrenica that this Media cum ruling class internationally never revise, never change, but keep on to the end. So there will be no end or revision of this Arab Spring. Jordan for example will be pushed into such a Sharia state. In this regard I cannot see or understand this so-called split, as Gil White said, they are all made of the same cloth.
Those are conditions of extreme and international as well as civil war, with the most intense pressure on Israel, where the motto to “keep building” is hopelessly inadequate.
Obama keeps hopping about like a cat on cinders and given the lack of theory and programme of course Bennett will be no different.
likud will just follow never lead. Likud cannot lead. Feiglin and Eltad will remain true to their principles but will remain just a few people.
There is only the ONE solution. jews need a party of a definite type but that is somewhere where the establishment will not go.
We are talking here about a new leadership not in Judea and Samaria but in Israel, which is based on a definite programme and which will not flinch when the time comes for action. And that action entails the arming of the whole Jewish people and a new leadership inside the IDF that will lead that, and for the first time for Jews to really take possession of their homeland and of their future.
There is only one solution. It does not include demilitarized territory ( which doesn’t work) or a tss,which is the end of Israel. Israel must annex Judea and Samaria, NOT give citizenship to Arabs of J-S, who must receive Jordanian citizenship, continue building in J-S and all of Jerusalem and put down Arab violence with an iron fist. Rock throwing and petrol bombs are not part of peaceful demonstrations; they kill and wound and must be treated as such.
Europe is on the way down. Israel can survive 4 more years of Obama, if we are strong.
The only thing we lack is, spine and more spine. The spinelessness began in ’73, when we didn’t wipe out the Egyption 3 Army, progressed through Begin’s capitulation and the withdrawal from Sinai, the refusal to build the best fighter – bomber in the world (to withdraw the threat of competition with US plane builders), the disaster 0f Oslo and all the concessions of the past few decades. Now, even the Islamic Turkish leadership has lost respect. The more we act like a rug, the more the EU, US and others will step on us.
@ Laura:
Your math is good.
@ yamit82:
From 1948 to 1967 Judea & Samaria was nomansland. Only Pakistan and Britain accepted . In 1967 the land was
liberated from Jordanian occupation. It is right that Israel have right to Judea & samaria by all means
More bullshit from Yamit82. This man does not have a f…… clue what is going on in Israel.
His latest is to lose everybody in the meaningless parliamentary bullshit in Israel.
He is now elevating this guy Bennett and his party, a party which is based on what exactly, nobody has really stopped to analyse it, but it is CERTAINLY more parliamentary bullshit.
The important thing I want to say about Yamit82 is that this is a man who has argued with me in the past that you have to believe in the supernatural and that anything secular in Israel is taboo.
But the majority of Israeli youth are secular and are supporting the party of Bennett, are flocking to him repressed as they have been for so long by this religious manic crowd of which Yamit82 was numero uno.
Now Yamit82 does a shift which is dizzying and supports the secular new party.
Jeeeesus wept!!!!
@ yamit82:
yamit, how are the votes counted?
what certainty (if any) is there that non favorable votes may ‘accidentally’ not be counted while others will be counted more than once (accidentally of course).
My comment to drjb is caught in you spammer web
@ drjb:
He will benefit A- By showing ideological Jews that there is a viable alternative to BB, especially if he gets a lot of non observant Jews to join and vote for the party. B- That the Likud will no longer have the Logo of being the only option for right wing Jews secular or religious.
C-The stronger they are especially out of the government the more influence they will have especially from a base of the major opposition party.
Being in the government allows BB to do what he wants anyway as long as he can end run them by bringing in a leftist parties. No party ever succeeded in becoming the dominant party from within but only from the opposition. A large united opposition is more valuable outside of such a potential government than from within.
Israel has not had a real opposition party in years and if BB is going to concede territory Bayit Yehudi won’t stop him from within but only from without putting pressure and Likud MK’s to oppose such a move by BB. That’s what I mean by Palace revolt.
The National Union placed them too far down the list and Eldad and Ben Ari figured that their electoral worth should have placed them in safer electoral slots so the quit and now have to prove their belief. Polls show the with 2-3 but I think they can get 4. That’s the time to seek a union when you come in with strength. 3 Mandates is almost 100k voters so they have a following and a constituency. Then Rav Amsalem is polling two on the account of Shas mainly and his views don’t differ radically from Eldad and Ben Ari, that would give them together a potential of between 4-6 mandates together. In the current constellation the voting blocks are stable and there is no doubt BB will form the next government so it gives a lot of voter flexibility. It’s not as though votes not going to the Likud will go to the left they are just moving to a more right wing option and not hurting BB’s chances t becoming PM.
BB does not want to have limited options and he will try to co-opt 2 of the three parties from the left and they are all Leftist. There is no such animal as a centrist in Israel. That’s political BS spin.
@ NormanF:
The Government does not have to evict them. Just remove the protection of the IDF and no compensation by the government. Most will leave voluntarily having to agree to negative terms by the government for any compensation and only a small hardcore would try to hold on. They could then be evicted by force if it comes to that.
I have learned from experience that if the government is committed and have a majority of the rest of the population in back of them they will do it. It will cost a lot of money so for one thing the government will try to maneuver the residents into a position of accepting as little as possible. I’ve seen them up close and personal and have no doubts that even a million Jews will not stop them if it comes down to it.
@ yamit82:
Hi Yamit,
will Bennett benefit from Likud’s downdraft?
also, please explain why Eldad and his party have not joined BY
thx
@ drjb:
The Likud ceased being a right wing nationalist party the day Begin betrayed those loyal to Heruts’ by signing on to the Camp David agreements pressured by the weakest American president in history. That was the Beginning of the land for Peace policy followed by every Israeli government since and the main cause of our schizoid behavior ever since. What happened to the Likud is what happens to big tent all inclusive political parties who sell populism instead of clear vision and the ideology to achieve it.
I prefer to see the Likud with less than 30 mandates like 25 Max. Then sit back and see the rats jump ship. Rats have a keen sense of self preservation. The Likud lemmings will stick by him so long as he brings home the political bacon. A weakened BB might spur a palace revolt when the time comes and a strong right wing party next to the Likud could be the recipient of the Likud losses if it doesn’t succeed.
There is still a bad taste in the mouth of Israelis who haven’t forgotten how BB handled the last conflict with Gaza a month ago, especially the 50,000 reservists called up.
Laura Said:
A million Jews in Judea and Samaria will make an Arab state impossible because that many Jews can’t be evicted. By the time it happens Israel will hopefully have a Prime Minister with a real spine.
You mean 30th anniversary.
The Likud platform is not including a reference to an Arab state, which is opposed by most of the party.
The important thing is to clip Netanyahu’s wings so he can’t impose another settlement freeze or agree to the establishment of an Arab state.
If I could vote, I would vote strategically for Bayt Hayehudi. The rationale is as follows:
Likud will undoubtedly win the election by getting at least 30 seats. These seats guarantee that all Likud nationalists (eg. Danon, Feiglin, Levin, etc) will be in the next Knesset. It is important to limit the possibility that the doves of the party get in (eg. Meridor, Begin, etc) thus I’m not interested in a Likud sweep. At the same time, it is important to strengthen and, if possible, unify the parties to the Right of the Likud, so that Bibi is forced to include them in his coalition at the expense of Tzipi or Shelly Or Yair.
Bennett has the right qualifications and stacks up very well against Bibi. He’s a businessman and self made millionaire (ie. he’s richer than Bibi), has at least as good or better military record as Bibi, speaks English as well, or better, than Bibi, and finally, with a kippah on his head, I’m certain that if he’s not a better Jew, he at least projects a more Jewish image to the outside world than Bibi does. But more importantly, he’s electable. And he is the only real choice in the Right. Eldad’s party may not even break the threshold for Knesset inclusion, and why he hasn’t joined with Bayt Hayehudi is something I can’t understand but maybe Yamit can explain :).
Although normally I would vote Likud, there’s something about Bibi that I don’t like anymore, and it’s this sense that I cannot trust him or believe half the stuff he says. His insistence to seek the Left in his coalition dealings, and his eagerness to please the Left, at the expense of those who have supported him, I find intolerable. And finally, his constant rejection of Feiglin has rubbed me the wrong
Jewish nationalist resistance against some of Netanyahu’s policies obviously is growing within his own Likud leadership group. One would expect him to read this as a clear signal that the prime minister will have no mandate for any action that loosens Israel’s rightful grip over the future of Shomron and Yehuda.
The goyim of the world frown upon Israel and the Jewish nation for fulfilling our 3400-year-old commandment to take and hold the whole of Eretz-Yisrael and to keep it forever. But recent demographic reports show there are some 722,000 Jews in Shomron, Yehuda, Golan and the re-united eastern portions of Jerusalem. These numbers have grown by about 18 per cent over the past three years. If these trends are maintained, the Jewish population in all these places will increase to about 1 million in another 10 years, which will then mark the 20th anniversary of the Oslo Accords — for whatever that was worth — and 55 years after the great Six Day victory of 1967.
Never forget that the land is everything; in comparison, all else is nothing.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI