Moshe Feiglin is back

Zehut is officially running!

There’s not a lot I can add to this video, other than an English transcription of it. If you can understand the Hebrew, that’s better, but if not, my transcription/translation is right after it. And while it probably goes without saying, I’ll be voting for Zehut in the next elections. I hope you will, too.

Dear Israelis. On the 7th of October, a new generation rose up for us. A generation of heroism. But on that same 7th of October, bitter and hasty, it turned out that that generation, that generation of heroism, has a leadership of defeat.

Already on the 8th of October, we knew and we warned that this was going to be nothing more than an enhanced “round”. We knew and we warned that this would be a war of deception. We knew and we warned that hundreds of soldiers would die for nothing, and that in the end, it would finish with some glorious deal, in defeat, and not in victory.

We knew. We warned. And what we feared came to pass.

We are present here today in order to replace Netanyahu. To replace Netanyahu with an entirely new nationalist leadership. Because if we don’t replace Netanyahu, he, and those like him, will bring upon us – with certainty – the next round.

He, who rose to power in 1996 on the wave of the struggle we led against the Oslo Accords, but immediately afterwards, hugged Arafat. And he told the entire world that he’d “found a friend”.

He, who in his Bar Ilan speech essentially revitalized the Palestinian nation – the invented Palestinian nation – he recognized them. And he recognized their right to the very heart of the land of the Bible.

He, who freed Sinwar and a thousand other terrorists who became the leaders of Hamas on the 7th of October.

He, who supplied them with suitcases full of money.

He, who with one hand send the best of our children and our grandchildren to battle, and with the other hand provided the enemy with water, fuel, food, and tens of thousands of trucks filled with supplies.

He is the one who brought us this defeat.

Netanyahu must go.

And God willing, we, the Zehut Party under my leadership, will replace him with Jewish leadership – a leadership of victory.

This week, in these very days, another round finished. Nothing but a round. An enhanced round. And the countdown to the next bloody round began.

Do you remember dear Or Tzuk? The resident of Kfar Aza? Do you remember Or Tzuk, who in the week following those atrocities, set aside everything she had believed in before and said, “Now I want a view to the sea. Clean of Arab homes. From Kfar Aza up to the shore.” Do you remember her? The Prime Minister promised Or – and all of us – complete victory. Remember? “Complete victory”.

But it turns out that the ones who were realistic in those days – were us.

It was us who knew already on the 8th of October that this would be no more than an enhanced round. Another enhanced round that would end in yet another glorious deal, and in defeat.

Netanyahu’s “complete victory” turned out to be the greatest of defeats.

How did we know? How did we know that that was precisely what would happen? Because in order to win, you have to have vision. In order to win, you have to believe that this is our land. And our land only. In order to win, you have to believe in purpose, and in the message of the People of Israel. In order to win, you have to stop being afraid of the dream of all those generations. To stop being afraid of the dream our grandfather dreamt. You have to stop being afraid of the dream of repairing the world and building the Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. That is the vision of the People of Israel. That is our vision. Someone who does not carry the vision of all those generations within him cannot win, and will continue to lead us from one defeat to the next.

Had we had, on the 7th of October, a leadership that had not surrendered to Oslo – a leadership that knows that Gaza is an inseparable part of the Land of Israel – Israel would have easily conquered and won within a matter of days.

What? What Joulani and his friends did in 11 days with a few Toyotas, conquered all of Syria, the great IDF wouldn’t have been able to do to a tiny strip of beachfront as much as they did in 11 days?

It’s clear that they could have, had they only understood that this is our land, and the 7th of October was an opportunity – not only a tragedy, but an opportunity as well – to liberate it.

Instead, we got a leadership that had adopted Oslo, and rather than liberate Gaza from Hamas, waited – do you know what they waited for? – they waited for the Gerald Ford to arrive and save us. Remember?

Friends, it’s either an entirely different leadership – leadership with Jewish vision – or more of the same. More and more blood, more and more hostage taking, more and more rounds of defeat.

I am calling from here to all of the parties and all the movements to show up today at the side of the Zehut Party, and to create a national leadership with vision. Leadership that will cancel the Oslo Accords. Leadership that will expel our enemies from our land. Leadership that will extend full sovereignty to all parts of the Land of Israel that are in our hands.

Because there is no victory other than conquest, expulsion, and settlement. There is no victory without the faith that this is our land and without its liberation from our enemies.

No raids, no games about Oslo – full cancellation. Conquest, expulsion, and settlement.

Thirty years ago, we stood at the head of the struggle against the Oslo Accords. What we got on the wave of that struggle against the Oslo Accords was Netanyahu. Today, after we have eaten the entirety of this shame, we are here to finish the job. Not merely to say what’s not. What’s not okay with the leadership of the army – and we have to replace them – what’s not okay with the judicial leadership in this country, what’s not okay with academia, what’s not okay with the left. We are here to say what is. We’re done saying what’s not. We’re here to present an alternative.

Together, we will raise up new leadership for our people. Leadership of identity and of liberty. Together, we will rise up from the ashes. We will restore the brilliance of Israel, and ensure for our children and grandchildren a secure and thriving Jewish state. A state that is connected to its identity. A state that fights for its freedom. A state that wins.

The generation of heroism that rose up and saved us on the 7th of October, despite the civilian and military leadership of defeat, this generation of heroism deserves new leadership. It deserves leadership of victory. Leadership that will ensure for the generation of heroism that its sacrifice was not in vain.

Together, we will establish for the generation of heroism leadership worthy of it. Visionary leadership. Victorious leadership.

Thank you.

Moshe Feiglin, the Zehut Party declared today that it is running under your leadership. Will you sit with Netanyahu?

We have announced that we will not sit with Netanyahu nor with any party – any leadership party – that does not announce in advance that it will cancel the Oslo Accords, and that this will be its first action after it is established.

I do not see – specifically with respect to Netanyahu – how the man who internalized the Oslo Accords, the Oslo logic – maintained it, kept it going, acted within its framework, was unable to provide any alternative vision – could do that.

A short time ago, the chairman of the Religious Zionist party Betzalel Smotrich, said that the Religious Zionist party will support the first phase of the agreement in exchange for guarantees that the second phase and third phase and so on will be implemented. Do you have any message for the heads of the right wing parties in the coalition?

Yes. I call on my friend Betzalel, I call on my friend Itamar Ben Gvir, I call on all faithful Likud MKs, I call on the entire Jewish majority that has remained connected to its identity and its national honor, to leave this government immediately.

I know that your intentions are good. But you have to understand that so long as you are led by leadership that has not even a molecule of vision in its bloodstream, all of your good intentions, and the important tactical achievements that you are achieving, will not change the strategic direction in which the train of the state is racing. And we will crash time and again, and you will be part of this crashing. Don’t forget that the 7th of October happened under an entirely right wing government after almost thirty years, the vast majority of which saw the right wing in power. And that when we complain about the left and claim that “You brought the disaster of Oslo upon us”, the answer we receive is, “What do you want? We’re you in power for the past twenty or thirty years?” And they’re right. We’ve been in power for twenty or thirty years, and we didn’t dare breach the boundaries of the Osloitic vision.

And so I call to my friend Betzalel, and to my friend Itamar, and to all the faithful Likud MKs – and that’s most of them – get off of this train. Whoever stays on this train bears responsibility for it. Whoever thinks that they can change the direction of this train from the back cars without seizing the controls, without visionary leadership, bears responsibility for the next round. You must not stay there. Join with the Zehut Party, and at the side of the Zehut Party, we will create new leadership. Visionary leadership. Leadership that will bring the State of Israel to a new future. A secure future. A future of promise. A future of identity. A future of liberty. A future that will turn the horrible sacrifice of our children – from the war of deception that Netanyahu and the leaders of the army are taking us to – into a sacrifice that was not in vain. Into a sacrifice that will take the State of Israel to an entirely new place among the nations. A place of security, a place of thriving, a place of liberty – a place of identity.

Thank you, Moshe. Zehut ran previously, in the first round of elections in 2019, and since then, Zehut has not run. You expressed your opposition then to combinations and cooperation. Has your position changed since then? And if so, what is your position on making combinations, both with extra-parliamentary groups as well as within the Knesset?

As I said, we are extending our hand to every party, to all bodies, the extra-parliamentary ones, the intra-parliamentary ones – every Israeli leader, every Jewish leader, who is connected to the Jewish vision, who is connected to their Jewish identity, everyone who sees himself as part of the Jewish majority, is invited to join at our side in every way. Whether they join the Zehut Party or whether they stand at our side in technical blocs or any other way. We must unite our forces with all the healthy forces in the State of Israel. And those forces are the great majority. The great majority whose soul has been shattered by a visionless leadership. The great majority that seeks new leadership. The People of Israel want new leadership. The People of Israel want a new way forward. Come and let’s provide it! It’s ready. The way forward is ready. The way forward is detailed. We have a detailed platform that has thought of everything. Politically/diplomatically, what we need to do with Gaza and with Judea and Samaria. Economically, what we will do with our hero soldiers who are returning from Gaza to give them the possibility of establishing a home, establishing a family, and buying an apartment in Israel. In every sense. In the judicial sense, in every sense, we have a way forward, we have vision, we have a goal. Come and stand beside us. Together, we will provide the People of Israel, and our children, who have endangered themselves for us, leadership that is worthy of them.

Moshe, you said in your speech that Netanyahu is leading us to the next slaughter. Can you expand upon the reality as it is developing now and upon the results of this deal? How is this deal bringing us to the next slaughter, God forbid?

It’s not complicated to understand what a shot of encouragement all of the enemies of Israel, near and far, are receiving from this greatest of defeats that has been presented to them by the Netanyahu government. By Netanyahu’s leadership and by the weak leadership of the Israeli security establishment in the State of Israel. It’s not complicated to understand this. We see the celebrations. We hear them. We see the caricatures. We see the joyous festivities. We have made a mockery and a ridicule of ourselves. Do you know the famous saying in the Middle East? Either you sit at the meal, or you’re part of the menu. This deal has made us the menu. The menu of all of our enemies in the Middle East. This deal turned the promise of complete security into the greatest of defeats. This deal ensures the next round.

And who is going to want to enlist in battle? After the excitement of the generation of heroism, and after the misbehavior of the leadership of defeat that turned the generation of heroism to a generation of burial.

Who won’t have second thoughts? Why enlist under this kind of leadership, which sends me into battle with one hand and provisions the enemy with the other? Can we continue fighting and winning forever under a visionless leadership like this one?

This is not another party. This is hope. The true hope for change. True change in how the country is run. A change of path, a change of direction. A new message. A new purpose. A new spark in our eyes. Hope for the young generation. Hope for security, for thriving, for flourishing. For a life with meaning. For a life with identity. For a life with liberty. For our children and for our grandchildren and for generations to come, we must be rid of this visionless leadership that has brought us to the brink of the abyss.

And we will do this. This is our obligation. This is our obligation to our children and to generations to come.

I call on all parties, to all the dear leaders of the public who understand this point, and who are trapped in this loop of Likud and Netanyahu, to get out of this game, and to establish together, together with the Zehut Party, at the side of the Zehut Party, new leadership. Leadership with hope for the People of Israel.

It has been said that Netanyahu has stood heroically against the world, against Biden, against the Europeans, against the Hague, and if even Netanyahu got to this point where even right before Trump comes into office, he was forced to make this deal, then apparently there’s no choice, and maybe we have to... do you think that the world will accept the policies that you’re suggesting?

Of course they will accept it. The world accepted the fact that Ben Gurion established the state even though the Americans vetoed it with a weapons embargo until the 70s. The world accepted the Eshkol government in 1967 sounded a lengthy alarm about the lack of American agreement to go to war. He didn’t consider anyone, and without American weapons and without the Gerald Ford and without any world support, conquered all of the Gaza Strip in a day and a quarter, and with it all of the Sinai. Liberated Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and the Golan Heights.

And what happened in response? In response to the fact that the People of Israel stood up and became a proud nation? What happened in the wake of 1967? In the wake of the Six Day War? Suddenly Nixon showed up. Suddenly there was widespread world support. It works precisely the other way, my friends. Weakness and defeat brings pressure. It brings international delegitimization.

Look where Netanyahu is today. After the greatest of defeats that was supposed to have led to, after the atrocities, led to a simple understanding of who the good guys and bad guys are in this story. Where is Netanyahu today? Under an international arrest warrant. A soldier who returns from battle in Gaza can’t visit Brazil or Norway or any other place in the world. He can’t show his face! This is what weakness gets us. That’s what surrender gets us. And the exact opposite is what we will get from victory and standing proudly behind our identity and for our liberty.

How will you get the hostages back, then?

There is only one way in which is it permissible to return hostages and in which, God willing, we will return the hostages. And that is victory. And victory is not attained by sending our soldiers, our heroes, into tunnels and booby traps. Victory is not attained by begging the Americans for more and more weapons for a war that will never end. Victory is attained by simply turning off the water. Victory is attained by simply turning off the fuel. It is certainly not attained by supplying them with tens of thousands of truckloads of supplies. That’s not how you win a war. An enemy under siege, a thirsty enemy, will take the hostages, will go out and raise a white flag and ask for a glass of water. That’s how we’ll free the hostages.

A final question.

Hey Moshe. I would be happy to hear your approach to the failure of the government of Israel in terms of the ability to present our side to the world as the injured party, as the party that was basically the victim of this attack, and in the end, the wave of antisemitism because of it.

The strategy of Israeli PR starting the 7th of October was a strategy of being pitiful. Of waving pictures of the atrocities all over the world. Instead of a strategy of justice, it was a strategy of waving our piteousness. It was essentially a strategy of tolerating evil.

Instead of destroying the enemy, we spent time explaining to the world how cruel the enemy is. But the world doesn’t care that our enemy is cruel. It knows that very well. What interests the world is “Are you prepared to go to war and destroy this evil?” If you aren’t prepared to go to war and destroy, to kill, to destroy, if you aren’t prepared to do to Gaza what the British did to Dresden and Hamburg, and what the Americans did in every Japanese city they came to, burning them to their foundations. Including what they did in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If after an atrocity like that, that neither the British nor the Americans have ever experienced a thousandth of – no Nukhba soldier every crossed the English Channel and raped and killed and beheaded women in London. No Japanese crossed the Pacific Ocean and beheaded and killed and raped women in California.

And despite that, it was clear to them that they were dealing with a war of good against evil. Against absolute evil. In its most absolute form. Not against some regime that needed to be brought down, but against the country of Germany. Against the country of Japan.

We’ve turned this war into some kind of engineered war. Not against the terror state that we established in Gaza in the Oslo Accords, but against the regime that the Gazans voted for. And if it’s not precisely the same regime, we can’t touch them.

We did everything to define the goal in a way that guarantees that we won’t win. And the world, when it saw that absolute evil, this Islamonazi evil reached our doorway, our very homes, and we tolerate them, it said, “If that’s the case, if you can tolerate the evil, can we do any less?” And from that moment, from the moment we proved that there is a place for this evil in the world, all the sewers of international antisemitism rose up and went out against us.

The best PR is the destruction of the Islamonazi Satan in Gaza. That’s PR. That’s the PR that was understood very well after the great victory of the Six Day War. And that’s the PR that will be understood very well when we finally have a victorious government. Let’s make it. Let’s make that leadership, my friends. That’s our goal today; that’s our purpose. We owe it to our children. We owe it to future generations. Come and let’s do it.