Background
Manhigut Yehudit was founded in 1998. It applied to run in the 1999 elections as an independent party, but pulled out before election day. In the 2003 elections Feiglin was refused permission to run on the Likud list by the Central Elections Committee as Israeli law that states that a person convicted of a crime of "moral turpitude" within the last seven years may not be elected to the Knesset (Feiglin was convicted of blocking Israeli roads in acts of civil disobedience to protest the Oslo Accords in the early 1990s as a co-leader of the Zo Artzeinu movement). Otherwise, he would have taken 38th place on Likud's list and been elected to the Knesset. There was considerable controversy regarding whether blocking roads in political protest could be considered "moral turpitude".
Manhigut has received much media attention and has been the subject of controversy: it has been criticized by the Israeli left and center for its close ties to the radical Israeli right of Religious Zionism. Conversely, the same radical right has characterized the Manhigut project as "naive" in thinking that it can re-shape Israeli politics by "infiltrating" the largely secular (and debatably, pragmatic) right-wing Likud party. Some critics also say that Manhigut diverts valuable resources and supporters that could otherwise be going into other right-wing organizations. Another complaint has been that the Israeli public is significantly more likely to vote for a secular right-Likud than a national-religious one.
Despite all this, Manhigut has a devoted following, both in Israel and abroad, many of whom see Feiglin's "moderate" and long-term approach to work within the parliamentary system (and specifically, to slowly and eventually gain control of the Likud as a powerful bloc) as refreshingly innovative, if not ingenious. They also praise the movement's commitment to Israeli democracy and non-violence (although some detractors note, ironically, that the ultimate goal of Manhigut seems to be to use democracy to replace Israeli law with Halakha).
Read more about this topic: Manhigut Yehudit
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