“Shooting inside the APC”

The polls show Bayit Yehudi winning between 16 to 18 seats in the upcoming election.

But the polls are wrong, and the reason is Naftali Bennett and Uri Ariel.

Bennett and Ariel have different political styles, different visions on how the party should run, different religious outlooks, and most importantly they’ve forgotten what they have in common and what they have to both gain and lose.

If this fighting between the two of them continues to escalate in the direction it is heading — and they are both to blame for the fighting — then the Bayit Yehudi party will split, and everything gained in the last election will be lost.

Ariel’s National Union, as a stand-alone party, is unlikely to have enough seats to pass the threshold, and even if it does pass they’ll be sidelined from any coalition. Either way, National Union seats will be siphoned away from Bayit Yehudi and lost.

And on the other side, Bennett, without Ariel (who is an excellent parliamentarian) will not really interest those who are looking for a right-wing and religious party, which is what the National Union bloc brings to Bayit Yehudi.

Without its strong religious/right-wing component, Bayit Yehudi will look like a poor man’s Likud, and why vote for a copy when you have the original- the Likud, who will be fielding their proven and strong right-wing/religious bloc.

If these two split the party, I simply don’t see myself voting for either one, and I’ve heard the same from other people.

So they had better get their acts together now, and each of them had better start to compromise and talk nicely to one another and figure out how to run and work together, for everyone’s benefit — then Bayit Yehudi will win big.

Otherwise, I’ll give be giving my vote to Feiglin and Hotovely, even if I have to hold my nose and vote Likud to do so.

Knesset guards forcibly removed an Arab Knesset Member Jamal Zahalka from the podium Monday evening on orders from Acting Speaker Moshe Feiglin for calling him a “fascist.”

For good measure, Zahalka added that considering he was talking about Feiglin, the word fascist was a “compliment.”

The guards removed him from the chamber, but Feiglin, remaining the parliamentarian, told them he only ordered that Zahalka be taken away from the podium. As he returned to the chamber, pandemonium broke out in the circus, and everyone had a good time shouting at each other.

Other Arab MKs and Labor MK Shelley Yechomovich rushed towards the podium to protest Feiglin’s action, which he said he carried out according to the Knesset code.

Prior to Zahalka’s “fascist” comments, Feiglin had evicted Hadash party Arab MK Mohammed Barakeh from the Knesset for telling Feiglin he should “be choked.”

The mayhem revolved around the  daily circus’ event of the day, a no-confidence motion over the “Jewish State Bill” that would define Israel as a Jewish state.

Zahalka managed to get in a few words against the idea, quoting Jewish philosopher Hanna Arendt, who fled the Nazis and lived in the United States and railed against the idea or re-establishing the State of Israel because it would make Arabs second-class citizens.

Zahalka said Arendt used the term “Palestinians,” prompting Feiglin to interrupt and ask him if that was the actual word she used.

Zahalka replied that she indeed said “Palestinians” and then began to lecture Feiglin that he should read the source and perhaps “learn something.” He said Arendt was anti-fascist, but he turned to Feiglin and called him a fascist.

The acting speaker, in his usual calm manner, said that Zahalka could not continue speaking, but he ignored or didn’t even hear Feiglin. Within seconds, the guards came to remove him, and he went into a rage, grabbing the podium to resist his ouster.

Can a Knesset Member called another MK a “fascist”? Can he call him a “Nazi”?

Or how about “dirty Jew?”

Or “dirty Arab?”

Opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog sharply criticized Feiglin for removing Zahalka from the podium, accusing him of violating “freedom of thought and democracy.”

What would he had said if Feiglin had called an Arab MK a “terrorist?

The video of the Knesset show is in Hebrew but that shouldn’t keep anyone from understanding what happened.

The action starts at two minutes in the video.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Monday that Israeli is not an “occupier” and that Hamas is an enemy of peace.

He added that the reason for Israel’s counter-terror Protective Edge campaign was Hamas rocket fire on the country.

Regarding Ban’s concern over “provocations” on the Temple Mount, Netanyahu described the daily violence and incitement by Muslims against Jews.

The Prime Minister’s statements were mainly for the record so that future historians won’t say Israel never warned the United Nations that its view of the Palestinian Authority is cockeyed.

Ban said in Ramallah earlier in the day, when he visited Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, that “while rebuilding is important, we must tackle the root causes of instability. We must give renewed attention to the West Bank. I once again strongly condemn the continued settlement activity by Israel.

“I am also deeply concerned by repeated provocations at the holy sites in Jerusalem. These only inflame tensions and must stop.”

The PLO explained to the world the meaning of the word “provocations.”

“Allowing extremist Israeli settlers to raid Al Aqsa compound protected by the Israeli police is a further proof of the belligerent agenda of the extremist Israeli government,” it said in a statement. “Such actions are part of the Israeli goal to turn Jerusalem into an exclusive Jewish city.”

‘Extremist settlers” refers to Knesset Member Moshe Feiglin, who visited the Temple Mount on Monday, again upsetting the Palestinian Authority campaign that the Temple Mount remain exclusive for Muslims.

Arab MK Aby Arar wrote on Friday to a Jewish activist, who complained that police had closed the holy site to Jews, “It should be closed all the time to Jews because they have no business there.”

The computer industry has Moore’s Law, which is an observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years.

Israel now has Feiglin’s Law, which is an observation that Israel receives an increasing and massive influx of new Olim (immigrants) whenever major global geopolitical shifts occur, especially when those shifts synchronize with increased antisemitism and economic problems.

Feiglin told the Minister of Aliya and Absorption in the Knesset that that he expects a million and a half Jews to make Aliyah within the decade, as all the conditions are right for it.

Feiglin points out that throughout Zionism’s history, the demographers have been naysayers, proclaiming how few Jews will be in Israel, and even questioning if the Jews will be the majority in our own land.

In 1898 Shimon Dubnov estimated no more that 500,000 Jews will be in Israel by the year 2000. In the 1940′s Israel’s Bureau of Statistics estimated that in 2001 there would be no more than 2.3 million Jews in Israel.

In 1967, demographers actually claimed that Jews would be the minority in Israel by 1987.

Yet after the War of Independence, a million Jews arrived. In the 1970′s 300,000 Jews arrived, and after the USSR fell, another million Jews arrived.

And of course, as Feiglin points out, Jewish families still maintain very high birth rates, and not only among the religious.

As history showed, by the year 2000 Israel had over 5 million Jews, and are clearly the majority west of the Jordan river.

If Feiglin’s Law is right then we’re going to need a lot more housing in Judea and Samaria.

I just hope a good percentage of those Olim will be Americans.

Stone-throwing Arab rioters forced police to escort Knesset Member Moshe Feiglin off the Temple Mount Thursday morning. Several Muslims were bruised in the melee.

Feiglin and his entourage ascended the Temple Mount without any confrontation. He commented to those accompanying him that the Third Temple will be built, God willing, a prayer that is included in the liturgy that Jews recite every day and which has been expressed for 2,000 years.

But when Feiglin says it, especially on the Temple Mount, the Arabs call it incitement.

Arabs screamed “Allah Akbar” as they confronted dozens of policemen who protected Feiglin, who eventually was forced to retreat as the mob got out of hand and police decided their freedom to riot was more important than the freedom of a Jew to visit the site.

Feiglin commented after he was hustled away, “Today’s incidents show more than ever…that violence pays off. Israeli weakness encourages violence.”

Different versions of the incident appeared in the media, each with its own agenda. The Bethlehem-based Ma’an News Agency told its readers, “Worshipers shouted ‘Allah Akbar’ at the group before Israeli forces raided the compound and began assaulting them with clubs. In response, young Palestinians began throwing stones at the Knesset members, forcing them to leave the compound.”

The terms “raid, “stormed,” and “invade” are used in every Arab report on Jews ascending to the holy site. Ma’an blamed Israel for the riot, stating that “Israeli forces, however, regularly escort Jewish visitors to the site, often leading to tension with Palestinians.”

 Arutz Sheva reported that.” Hundreds of rioters threw stones at Feiglin,” although the number seems to be gross exaggeration since only two Arabs were arrested. In the YouTube of Feiglin’s visits, stone throwers were not caught on film.

The Jerusalem Post wrote that the Arabs “gathered” to protest Feiglin’s visit and that “authorities ordered Feiglin to leave the compound and worked to disperse the rioters.”

The Times of Israel wrote, “Hundreds of Arab youths assembled Thursday morning atop Jerusalem’s Temple Mount to protest the visit of Likud MK Moshe Feiglin to the site.”

They did not “assemble” and did not “gather” and if they were “worshippers,” as Ma’an called them, why weren’t they inside their mosque praying to Allah to curse Feiglin?

Stay tuned.

MK Feiglin will be back, and so will the rioters.

In the video below, the commotion begins around 2:50 minutes and then escalates at $4:00 and 6:00, where the police begin to retreat.

Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, Moshe Feiglin (Likud) believes that Israel’s strategy on how to deal with the Iranian nuclear threat has failed.

In a Facebook post Feiglin writes:

We saw it coming and now it is here.

Israel’s strategy against Iran – attempting to convince the world to deal with the nuclear issue instead of Israel – has collapsed.

Neither the US nor Europe will volunteer to defend Israel, while Israel has lost precious time and maneuvered itself into isolation.

Iran is free to proceed with its goal to destroy Israel – undisturbed, while the legitimacy for an Israeli preemptive strike has dissipated.

On Tuesday, we’ll see how Prime Minister Netanyahu deals with this latest Iranian challenge at the UN and the White House.

British media sources are reporting that the bloggers Pamela Geller (Atlas Shrugs) and Robert Spencer (Jihad Watch) have been banned from entering the UK. They were banned as their entry was considered to be “not conducive to the public good,” following a campaign by left-wing activists to block their entry into the country.

The two bloggers were planning on attending and speaking at a rally in Woolwich organized by the right-wing EDL (English Defense League). Woolwich is the location were British soldier Drummer Lee Rigby was beheaded by a Muslim man in May.

The EDL is a street protest movement which opposes what it considers to be a spread of Islamism, Sharia law and Islamic extremism in the United Kingdom.

But Geller and Spencer shouldn’t think themselves exceptional here. Likud MK Feiglin is permanently banned from entering the UK, while other Israeli government officials have been afraid to enter England under threat of arrest. At one time that even included the left-wing Minister Tzipi Livni, for her involvement in defending Israel against the attacks from Gaza.