Israel Matzav

Bibi supporters do so with trepidation

At Shiloh Musings, Batya sums up for many of us why we are hesitant to support Bibi Netanyahu:

You're no "metzi'ah," great find either. Your big problem is that you want to be perceived as a "moderate," in the "center." Parve may be great in the kitchen, but it's traif in terms of leadership.

A leader must have clear "vision," meat or dairy. You have to have a clear direction and not try to attract all to the middle. It's an oxymoron to be a leader of the middle, since the middle isn't going any place. At best it treads water, and just surviving isn't enough.

Arkady Gaydamak's popularity should have you frightened, not as a politician competing for votes, but as an American educated man. We're of the same generation and know that when a country's population is looking for a savior to solve all their problems, they're looking for a dictator.

You have potential, training and a staff. Too bad you're wasting it pointing out the lard in Barak and how his policies have endangered us, but that's old news.

Bibi, you haven't shown that you're any better.

I share Batya's sentiments. The memory of the Why Why Wye? Agreement is too fresh in all of our memories.

But I'm also a realist. While the country is now leaning right, I understand that if Moshe Feiglin - to whom I am much closer ideologically than I am to Bibi - wins the Likud primary on August 14, it could drive the country's 'swing votes' into Ehud Barak's arms. Barak is still perceived as a "bitchonist" (security-oriented practical leader) despite his failures in Lebanon. So unless I conclude before August 14 that my Likud primary vote (yes, I am a member of the Likud) doesn't matter, I will pull the lever for Bibi on the 14th of August. If Bibi is so far ahead that it doesn't matter anyway, I will vote for Feiglin in a bid to keep Bibi's right flank sold.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:47 PM