Gershom Gorenberg explains how a far-rightist hijaked Israel's Likud party:
I met Moshe Feiglin, today the rebel prince of Israel's Likud party, in September 1998, at the Jerusalem Convention Center. Fifteen hundred radical rightists were pouring into the big graceless lobby. They'd come for an annual convention dedicated to rebuilding the ancient Jewish Temple where the Dome of the Rock now stands. Pamphleteers from sundry splinter groups worked the crowd. I recognized Feiglin's face -- lean and hungry, with a close-trimmed beard -- from news stories. Before Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, Feiglin's Zo Artzeinu (This Is Our Land) movement had led stormy protests, including blocking major highways, in a bid to prevent Israel from ceding territory for peace.
In the lobby, he was handing out bumper stickers demanding "Jewish Leadership for Israel." I asked, "We don't have Jewish leaders?" Feiglin sneered, as if everyone knew better. Right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu, then prime minister, obviously didn't fit Feiglin's requirements.
--The Editors
