Confused?

17 of the Ninth Month 5769

The National Union, made up of Tequmah, Moledet, and Ach"i and the National Religious Party [NRP] recently voted to disband their individual parties, and come together to form a brand new one, the Jewish Home Party.

Tequmah is made up of those who used to be the right-wing members of the NRP, until they split off.

This party should not be confused with Meimad, which is made up of those who used to be the left-wing members of the NRP, until they split off, and joined the Labor Party. Meimad has since left Labor, and may join the even farther left-wing party, Meretz.

Moledet is a non-religious, nationalist party, now headed by... a rabbi, MK Benny Elon.

Ach"i [Unity, Society, Judaism] used to be known as the Torah Zionism Party, the third break off from the NRP. Co-founder MK Effie Eitam recently left Ach"i, and was headed for a run for the Likud Party list. Even though about six months ago, he had criticized Moshe Feiglin's strategy for doing the same. Yet, when I went to vote in the Likud primaries, I noticed that MK Eitam wasn't on the ballot....

Confused?

Moledet faction member MK Aryeh Eldad has quit his non-religious, nationalist party, and has joined the new, non-religious, nationalist party HaTikvah.

Wait a minute,...now he is proposing that HaTikvah join up with the newly formed Jewish Home Party. Um,...so why did he quit in the first place??

And which "Jewish Home" faction will HaTikvah join anyway?

It looks like the National Union may end up leaving the Jewish Home Party, in other words, leaving the re-invented NRP.

No, I'm not talking about the November threats to split the party; these are the more recent, December threats, or rather the "suggestions," as they seem to be called these days.

Still confused?

Hang on. There's more... Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpe (Chaba"d) and Baruch Marzel (National Jewish Front) are expected to meet Sunday afternoon to discuss the formation of [yet] a[nother] new, right wing political party (IsraelNN.com).

Will the presence of several small right-wing parties shoot the right-wing in the foot? Will this help the Likud, or just put Kadima back into power?

Will these factions continue to fight, and even demonize, each other, and lose miserably in yet another national election?

Will newly-appointed head of the Jewish Home Party, Rabbi Daniel Hershkowitz ever stop evading the question as to whether he rejects further territorial concessions and evictions of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria?

Will the Israeli public ever snap out of its delusion, and realize that without the National Union, the National Religious Party is neither national, religious, nor even a party? (Discuss amongst yourselves....)

Will the various right-wing factions pull together, and attain a realistic presence in the Knesseth?

Could it be that Tully Fiqrash, writing in the "national religious" newspaper HaTzofeh (Hebrew), is actually correct in stating...

...once again, it has become clear that the struggle is not over ideology, but rather about seats [in Knesseth] and honor, not conceptual but personal....

Will Moshe Feiglin finally realize that no matter how long he plays by the rules, and wins, "they" (eg. Likud, Israeli Supreme Court, Israel's shadow government, etc.) will simply change the rules on him,...again and again?

Will a Sanhedrin be accepted, a king appointed, and work begun on the Mizbe'ah (altar) and Miqdash (Temple), thus canceling the need to participate in this [not even good enough to be called] "Hellenist process?"

Stay tuned...