Feiglin, Danon, and Regev
Photo: Ofer Amram, Yaron Brenner
Election shocker: Feiglin left out of Likud list
In apparent setback for radical-wing of ruling faction, settlers' favorite MKs fail to garner enough votes to reach realistic places ahead of elections.
Moshe Feiglin, the firebrand MK who made waves in the previous election by receiving enough votes to receive a realistic slot on the Likud's list, found himself on the outside on January 1 – after making a run for the party's leadership less than a month ago.
The early primaries – pushed through by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – led Feiglin to drop out of the race against the incumbent leader and Likud star Danny Danon. But the most surprising upset was his inability to gather enough support to receive a coveted spot on the faction's list.
Moshe Feiglin at Likud primaries (Photo: Motti Kimchi)
His colleague, MK Tzipi Hotovely, will also likely be left out of the running, after placing in 26th at the party's primaries. The dramatic drop on the list for both Feiglin and Hotovely signals a new trend in the faction – the decline of the "Feiglinists" in the Likud, who in the last primaries set the tone and left Hotovely as the highest-placed woman and Feiglin in 15th place.
The residents of West Bank settlements, which constitute a number of sub-groups, number only 10 percent of the overall delegates, but their traditional power has materialized through their relative participation rates – which they use to punish or reward the politicians who were beneficial to them.
In Wednesday's primaries, the weakening of Feiglin and Hotovely – held in high esteem by the settlers – signifies to a large extent the waning influence of that camp in the Likud.
