What the Likud's 14th-Ranked Knesset Candidate Thinks of Arabs

Bradley Burston did me a favor today by resurrecting a quote from Moshe Feiglin, the hard-right Israeli who is number 14 on the joint Likud-Yisrael Beyteinu Knesset list (meaning that he will certainly be a member of the next Knesset). I had forgotten about my interview with Feiglin nine years ago, which was part of my reporting for a New Yorker story on the settlement movement. It's quite a shocking quote, and it's disturbing to see that Feiglin is now a part of the Likud leadership. Here's the quote, in context:

Moshe Feiglin, a Likud activist who lives in a West Bank settlement and heads the Jewish Leadership bloc within the Party -- he controls nearly a hundred and fifty of the Likud central committee's three thousand members -- believes that the Bible, interpreted literally, should form the basis of Israel's legal system.

"Why should non-Jews have a say in the policy of a Jewish state?" Feiglin said to me. "For two thousand years, Jews dreamed of a Jewish state, not a democratic state. Democracy should serve the values of the state, not destroy them." In any case, Feiglin said, "You can't teach a monkey to speak and you can't teach an Arab to be democratic. You're dealing with a culture of thieves and robbers. Muhammad, their prophet, was a robber and a killer and a liar. The Arab destroys everything he touches."

CORRECTION: Feiglin was 14th on the Likud list. On the joint Likud-Yisrael Beyteinu list, he is 23rd.

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/01/what-the-likuds-14th-ranked-knesset-candidate-thinks-of-arabs/266766/