Newly-elected Moshe Feiglin threw in a line about being a future Prime Minister at a gala Queens dinner honoring him Monday night for being elected as an Israeli Knesset Member of the Likud party..
Feiglin spoke at the banquet in the Fresh Meadows Chateau Steakhouse, which was packed with supporters, including several Reform Jews, according to the International Business Times.
The new Knesset Member finally has achieved his aim after successful attempts by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to keep him out of the legislature, but now he will have to stomach some Likud policies that he abhors
A prime example is Netanyahu’s recent appointment of center-left Tzipi Livni as Justice Minister and responsible for the “peace process.”
Looking beyond the horizon, Feiglin said, “When I am Prime Minister, God willing, Tzipi Livni will not be in my government.”
The Israeli consensus would give Feiglin a zero chance of becoming Prime Minister, but it also dismissed him years as a possible Knesset Member.
The Hill website’s Bernie Quigley wrote in January that Feiglin would “find kinship” with Republican Senator Rand Paul.
“Ron Paul, who opposed the Israeli lobby’s efforts and the neocon adventures in wonderland, was unfairly caricatured as an anti-Semite in his opposition to the invasion of Iraq,” Quigley wrote. “And Rand Paul would find kinship with Moshe Feiglin, the liberty candidate for the Knesset who opposed American influence in Israel since 2001. Feiglin’s rise to the Knesset this month has already changed the culture and historical trajectory of Israel….These two, Rand Paul and Moshe Feiglin, rise in the world together and possibly fate intends for them to do so.”
Feiglin made it clear to his supporters at Monday night’s banquet, sponsored by his Jewish leadership faction, that his being in the Likud government – assuming it will be formed – does not mean he is adopting its policies.
Asked for a response to the Palestinian Authority’s gaining recognition in the UN as a non-member observer, he said, “There are no Palestinians; it’s all a ruse — there is no Palestinian history or Palestinian anything in Israel.”
He added, “It is meaningless, what they decided. I’ve heard this same decision made in the last 20 years at least three, four times.
The Jewish Voice for Peace, not surprisingly, condemned Feiglin’s appearance. The left-wing group labeled Feiglin and his associate David Sackett as racists who praise Rabbi Meir Kahane, the Brooklyn-born rabbi who once served in the Knesset and was murdered in New York.
The Palestine News Network reported that the Jewish Voice for Peace deputy director Cecilie Surasky said, “It’s unfortunate that a dangerous extremist like Feiglin, who has been banned from entering the UK, is being welcomed to speak in New York by members of the Jewish community.
