Moshe FeiglinFollowing last week's Likud primary, there were all sorts of stories from the media reporting on the purported rise of Moshe Feiglin.
Feiglin openly espouses a plan under which his religious and extreme right-wing faction will slowly take over Likud from within.
Last week, Feiglin received 12 percent of the votes in the Likud primary.
Considering that around 55,000 people voted in the primary, this means that around 6700 people voted for Feiglin.
Somehow, the news that 6700 people voted for Moshe Feiglin resulted in all kinds of scorn from the left-wing media (as well as from Ehud Olmert of Kadima, who was only elected to the current Knesset due to a deal with Feiglin, a separate issue), warning that Likud had now officially become a fanatical party. The right-wing media had similar reports, excitedly informing us that the 12 percent support for Feiglin proved that his popularity is soaring.
In reality, while Feiglin is a pest within Likud, he remains a very minor and marginal political figure in Israel. Politically, his stature is mostly in his own mind.
posted on 12/26/2005
