What’s wrong with rightist Likud?

Rightists who resisted disengagement are the real Likud; Sharon was the real rebel
Uri Orbach

We never saw such joyful shock as the one that emerged this week from Kadima’s branches. It was a fake shock. The relatively rightist Likud Knesset list brought great happiness to Tzipi Livni and her comrades, as if they just won the lottery.



We can assume that Moshe Feiglin’s showing in the primaries would indeed stop some Kadima voters from returning to Likud. However, what is worthy of attention is the ease with which former Likud members now spew forth the word “rightist,” as if we are talking about a disease. Mofaz and Hirchson, Bar-On and Boim, and even Tzachi Hanegbi and the entire former Likud group did not move to Kadima because they discovered the leftist light of peace. They simply followed Ariel Sharon’s dark magic, were stuck with Ehud Olmert’s failed leadership, and will freeze to political death with the pale Livni. Now, everything that the Left ever said about them in the past is being hurled back by them at their former party. This is the party that some of them will rush to return to after Kadima evaporates.



So if those are the new leftists, I prefer the old-time leftists from Labor and Meretz.



Likud is not Meretz
We already forgot that Likud is not supposed to carry out the policies of the Left, as there is some kind of deal: The Left and Kadima will win 30-40 Knesset seats, and the victorious Likud will then start to realize their plans. In the morning, it will withdraw from the Golan Heights, by noon it will renounce Judea and Samaria, and in the evening, to finish it off, it will divide Jerusalem.




The relatively rightist Likud Knesset roster may spoil these plans. The leftists woke up in the morning after the Likud primaries and discovered that Likud is not Meretz. How disappointing it is that these Likudniks cannot be trusted.



We already forgot that the real rebels are not the so-called Likud “rebels.” The “rebels” is a derogatory term that was repeatedly attributed to the Knesset members who refused to capitulate in the face of former PM Sharon’s threats and temptations ahead of the Gaza disengagement plan. The rebels were in fact the ones who remained loyal to the Likud platform, while Sharon was the one who rebelled, broke his promises, disregarded the Likud platform, failed to accept the majority’s decision in the Likud vote, and ultimately destroyed a whole region.




The rebels’ return to the Likud Knesset list is a case of poetic justice. The boys are back where they belong. If the residents of Gush Katif cannot go back to their houses, at least the ones who supported them have returned.