Gideon Levy, Haaretz, August 19:
Benjamin Netanyahu has once again demonstrated he is a political virtuoso. One may even start to suspect that he invented Moshe Feiglin. Talk is one thing – “we’ll uproot Feiglin” – but the result is something else: The Feiglins helped reinvent the Likud Party leader. Now Netanyahu is portrayed exactly as he wished: as a moderate leader, responsible, enlightened and level-headed, as opposed to all those Feiglins. They are “loony,” and he is a statesman; they are extreme, a foreign growth, and he is the next prime minister, who will bestow peace and security on Israel. Netanyahu should be grateful to the man who enabled him to deceive the media and the public.
Nonetheless, the question must be asked: What exactly is the difference between Netanyahu and Feiglin? How are Netanyahu’s positions – while it’s doubtful anyone knows exactly what they are – different from his rival’s “extremist” positions? This question was not raised at all in the ridiculous Likud party primaries. The bitter truth is that Netanyahu is essentially no different than Feiglin. They are all Feiglins in the Likud. The difference lies only in the media coverage and the rhetoric.