Zehut ("Identity") party head Moshe Feiglin, who could be the kingmaker in Israel's upcoming election, on Sunday told i24NEWS-Israel Hayom that Palestinian rights in Gaza were much better under Israeli control.
Speaking about Gaza's hardline Islamist government, Feiglin said: "For example, they did not throw homosexuals off the rooftops in Gaza when Israel was in control."
Voters may have a hard time pegging the self-proclaimed nationalist and defender of Jerusalem – who also supports the liberal ideas of a free education, free market, and legalization of marijuana – into a clear category, but that does not mean he is lacking support.
Just over two weeks before Israel's elections, Feiglin's libertarian-Zionist Zehut party has received a surprising amount of support.
According to the latest public opinion polls by i24NEWS-Israel Hayom, the party is projected to earn six seats in the next parliament, making it a key partner in any future coalition government.
With the future right-wing bloc maintaining a slim majority according to most recent polls, Feiglin's choice of who to ally with could decide if Israel will have a center-left government for the first time in about 20 years.
When asked who he will sit with in a future government, Feiglin said his loyalty is first and foremost to Jerusalem and to the land of Israel.
"The place I feel I can guard Jerusalem and protect the land, give the people of Israel the free economy we are talking about, then that's where I will sit," he said.
He went on to explain that he does not see a big difference between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party and the centrist outfit of former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, saying "they are both talking about a continuation of the Oslo Accords" and in support of a two-state solution.
"Everybody understands that the Oslo Accords and the two-state solution are nonsense and only brought bloodshed," the religious nationalist politician claimed.
Feiglin is attracting primarily right-wing voters, according to the poll, but is also gaining traction among centrist and even left-wing supporters.
Fifteen percent of respondents supporting Feiglin voted in the past for the secular-nationalist Yisrael Beytenu party, 14% for the ultra-Orthodox Shas faction, and 5% each for Likud, the center-right Kulanu party, and the decidedly left-wing Meretz faction.
A previous i24NEWS-Israel Hayom poll found that most Israeli voters characterize Feiglin's libertarian party as right-wing, compared with 13% characterizing it as centrist and 6% as leftist.
But a sizeable number of respondents (28%) remain unsure of the party's orientation, giving credence to analysts' observations that Feiglin has managed to obscure some of his more nationalistically-rooted policies – which include privatizing most government services, ending U.S. military aid to Israel, canceling the Oslo Accords and annexing the West Bank – by focusing its campaign on marijuana legalization.
When asked if Palestinians deserve the same freedoms he is championing for Israelis, Feiglin insisted that most Arabs under Hamas rule in Gaza or under the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank want to emigrate elsewhere but did not elaborate.
He went on to say that Israel makes no secret of being a Jewish state but that it remains "more democratic than most" by giving all minorities with Israeli citizenship full rights.
According to Feiglin, Zehut is hoping to fill the Education and Finance ministerial posts but has not received any guarantees from either Netanyahu's Likud party or its rival, the Blue and White centrist alliance.
Read more here:
https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/politics/105-20181226-israel-elections-2019
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