Bibi is Running

To nobody's surprise, Benjamin Netanyahu is officially running for the top Likud spot against Yassir Sharon. There is one big problem with this announcement, however: Bibi is a phony.

Having been PM once already, Zionists remember how Netanyahu gave away Hevron to the Palestinians despite running as an uncompromising Likud nationalist. He also coddled Arafat with public handshakes and allowed the despicable Oslo process to continue under his watch.

As Sharon's finance minister, he five times voted in favor of the Gaza expulsion, only to resign at the last minutes before the withdrawal began in an act so transparently political he was mocked by both Left and Right.

Of course, Sharon is even more duplicitous and corrupt than Netanyahu. Therefore, when running side by side, Bibi easily crushes the seditious Sharon in a voting decision most consider as choosing between the lesser of the two evils.

Uzi Landau, a powerful anti-expulsion Likud MK, is a serious threat to both Sharon and Bibi because of his popularity within the nationalist wing of the party. It is a reasonable deduction that if Landau scuttles Bibi he will win the Likud nomination.

Sharon will likely become a third party candidate comprising mostly of Likud doves and Labor centrists.

However, Landau's resources are much smaller than either Sharon or Netanyahu, so his will be an uphill slog to the top. The same could be said for Moshe Feiglin of the Religious Zionist wing of Likud, who is also hoping to gain the Likud nomination. His chances are the slimmest, however, as his base is not as powerful of a force in the Likud Party.

For what it's worth, I don't trust Likud at all anymore. Beginning with Menachem Begin's Sinai concession to Egypt, Bibi's concession of Hevron, and Sharon's Gaza capitulation, Likud's track record of hollow promises and islamic appeasement is horrendous.

Labor, of course, is no better than the PA, so they are not an option at all.

I submit that a unified National Zionist party under the leadership of Benny Elon is the only trustworthy option left for Zionists who are sick of Israel being given away inch by inch, Jew by Jew, until nothing is left.

Unfortunately, the Likud machine is so monstrous that the odds of an alternative Nationalist party breaking through is rather slim, though not impossible anymore. If ever it might happen, these elections would be the right time for a breakthrough.

-MZ