Likud committee bumps Feiglin down to 36th on party ticket

The Likud elections committee upheld on Thursday a petition to move controversial party figure Moshe Feiglin from the 20th place on the party ticket to 36th, despite his strong showing at this week's party primary.

Feiglin is an archrival of Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu. The success of Feiglin and his backers in the primary was a blow to Netanyahu's effort to present his right-of-center party as more centrist for the upcoming general elections.

Polls show Likud winning about 35 seats in the election, leaving Feiglin, who opposes peace talks with the Palestinians, encourages non-Jews to leave the country and advocates recapturing the Gaza Strip, out of the Knesset.

Feiglin announced that he had no plans to appeal the decision, saying that he did not have faith in Israel's justice system.

After the decision was announced, Feiglin told Channel 2 news that "anyone who saw the tremendous pressure Netanyahu applied, and all his tricks, which violated all law and justice, can safely assume that the committee, which is made up primarily of politicians, could not withstand that kind of pressure."

Feiglin added that he wasn't worried, saying that "we are winners. We will make it so that the Likud will get more than 40 seats in the elections and we will rescue the public from the scorched earth left behind by Kadima."

The petition which which brought about the change in the party list was submitted by Ofir Akonis, no. 28 on the Likud list, who argued that since female candidates fared relatively well, places on the ticket secured for women should be allocated to regional representatives. The result is that Feiglin, who ran on the national list, was effectively pushed down 16 places.

Ironically, among the regional candidates whom the decision moves up on the party list are Feiglin supporters Kati Sheetrit and Boaz Haetzni.

Netanyahu has announced that he intends to hold a rally in the Likud headquarters in Tel Aviv, with the participation of the top 40 candidates on the party ticket, in which he will outline his policies.

He is said to announce that he would not tolerate "interruptions and insubordinations" and that he would be the one leading the faction in the next Knesset.

On Wednesday, Haaretz unveiled an extreme right-wing text written by Feiglin that had disappeared on Tuesday from the Web site of his Jewish Leadership movement.

In the piece written five years ago, Feiglin says Israel should cut off water and electricity service to the Palestinian territories, withdraw from the United Nations and boycott the Olympics.

In the piece, Feiglin wrote that his first action after becoming prime minister would be to summon his government to give thanks in prayer on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, an extremely sensitive site holy to both Jews and Muslims.

Over the next 100 days he would announce Israel's withdrawal from the United Nations, the closing of its embassies "in Germany and other anti-Semitic countries" and the rescheduling of the school year along the lines of the Hebrew calendar. This would be the first step toward having "the Jewish state's pulse beat according to the Jewish clock instead of the Christian one."

Feiglin wrote that he would then address the Palestinian issue by ordering "the complete cessation" of funds, goods, water, electricity and communication to the Palestinian Authority. Any attack on an Israeli target would incur "the conquest of the area whose residents instigated the violence, their deportation and destruction of the area's infrastructure."

	Likud Knesset candidate Moshe Feiglin. (Tess Scheflan / Jini)