Feiglin attacks Netanyahu: "He was scared to death of me"

Moshe Feiglin, a guest on the new episode of the C14 web program "On the Way to the Ballot Box with Dana Ron," returned to the period when he was one of the prominent figures in the Likud and claimed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acted to block his progress in the party.

Feiglin said that after his activity in the "Zo Artzeinu" movement, he worked for mass enrollment in the Likud:

"I enrolled more than 22,000 people in the Likud. I changed the face of the Likud and it became a much better Likud thanks to this enrollment, but that was not the goal. The goal was leadership."

According to him, at a certain stage, a "glass ceiling" was created for him that prevented him from actually running for the party leadership. When asked about his past statement that Netanyahu had carried out a "targeted assassination" against him, he replied:

"Netanyahu was scared, scared to death. I will not forget that in Maariv they already rated in one of the primaries that he was afraid I was going to win. I came in second place in the primaries. He was very, very afraid."

Feiglin also linked these things to the Zehut party's run in the 2019 elections and claimed that Netanyahu misinterpreted the move:

"He was sure, when Zehut ran in 2019, that I was doing it only to take revenge on him. And he really did not read me correctly."

Regarding his relationship with the Prime Minister today, he said that after the 2019 elections there was good contact between them, but since then there has been "no special contact" between them. However, he emphasized:

"I have no hatred or desire to take revenge."

When asked if he would agree to drop out of the race in exchange for a ministerial position in a government led by Netanyahu, he replied in the negative:

"Being a minister under Netanyahu without any political power is worth nothing."

Later, Feiglin addressed the claim that his independent run could take votes from the right-wing bloc if his party does not pass the electoral threshold. In response, he directed sharp criticism at the right-wing governments and Netanyahu and claimed that the responsibility for the reality that led to October 7 cannot be placed only on the professional echelon.

"The one who received October 7 is a full-right government," he said.

According to him, one should not accept the claim that Netanyahu has only changed his ways in recent years:

"To say that he suddenly changed, anyone who thinks today that he learned the lesson, that he changed after he has been in power for 30 years — is really not serious."

Feiglin added that "the entire development of this abominable rot in the Israeli security establishment was under the right-wing rule and Netanyahu," and mentioned Netanyahu's first term in 1996. According to him, despite the public support he received then, Netanyahu actually continued the Oslo process:

"What does he do? Shakes Arafat's hand that same year, in '96, says 'I found a friend,' perpetuates Oslo — and that is what brought you to October 7."