Leftists concentrate their efforts on the Avodah party, but conservatives are dispersed among many parties. That situation reflects differences in mindset. Leftists are oriented toward immediate goals, while right-wingers look to high-flown ideals. Leftists join party lists and government coalitions based on the common current agenda; fringe conservatives refuse to join those with slightly different religious ideas. Thus, Israel sports several ultra-conservative religious parties.

Feiglin wrongly decided to subvert Likud instead of forming his own party. Feiglin’s choice was circumstantial: he needed to quickly join a party list in order to gain immunity from politically motivated prosecution. Likud offered only a dead end to Feiglin. Most of Likud voters are anti-Labor rather than right; few subscribe to Feiglin’s policy of holding on to Judea and Samaria. Likud also moderated Feiglin, particularly on the issue of transferring Israeli Arabs to Jordan; such moderation cost Feiglin a great number of right-wing votes. Feiglin has little chance to rise through Likud’s hierarchy. There are many ways to shut him up. For example, the proposed merger with Israel Beitenu pushes Feiglin’s candidates to the bottom of Likud’s list. Even if Feiglin surprisingly rises to Likud’s leadership and makes the party right-wing, he would only see Likud’s electorate switching to other centrist parties. Party’s brand is a great asset in huge mature democracies like the US; launching a new party is prohibitively expensive. Small, new democracies like Israel typically have a fluid party composition, with parties continuously entering and leaving the political scene. That trend is especially pronounced in a country of credulous, dreaming, messianically minded Jews who jump on every savior media ads proclaim to them. Hijacking Likud makes no sense for Feiglin.

Can the right wing form a winning coalition? Voter turnout is fairly high among Israel’s 19% Arabs; they vote Jewish left (which is Arab right). Slavs and Jews-by-grandfather form about 15% of Israeli population. They often stand for strong measures against Arabs, but rarely support truly conservative ideas like the annexed Judea and Samaria, expelled Arabs, and even united Jerusalem; they are decent soldiers, but it’s just not their war. They fought equally courageously in Afghanistan and Chechnya. Close to 10% of Israeli Jewish citizens reside abroad and don’t vote. Not less than a third of Jews are hard-core leftists who embrace Arabs in the Jewish state and don’t consider Judea the Jewish land. Israeli conservatives cannot hope for a majority. Even if they do form the Knesset majority, the leftist Supreme Court would quash their racist moves, and Israeli security establishment based on the MAPAI core will enforce the left’s law. Murders of Kahane family and Ze’evi showed that Israeli establishment won’t risk ideological competitors. They will be bought like Lieberman, subverted into political mainstream like Feiglin, or killed like Kahane. Government propaganda machine didn’t yet try on Feiglin a fraction of its facilities mobilized against Kahane or Sharon.

There is no alternative to revolution.