Moving right along

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Moving right along

MK Michael Kleiner, who represents the extreme right in the 2003 Knesset elections, is bringing back into Israeli politics a figure from the past: Rabbi Meir Kahane

Pasted on walls around the Mahaneh Yehuda produce market in Jerusalem and on Hamasger Street in Tel Aviv are yellow posters that carry, in bold black letters, an emotional appeal: "Kleiner, run on your own. The nation is behind you." Observers who are following developments on the far right of the Israeli political map are divided in their opinion of which mysterious nation is supposedly behind MK Michael Kleiner. Some believe that the grassroots activists of the outlawed Kach movement, headed by its spokesman, Itamar Ben Gvir, are responsible for the posters, but Ben Gvir denies this. Others maintain, with more than a little wickedness, that Kleiner himself put them up.

For his part, Kleiner, who in the outgoing Knesset constitutes the one-person Herut faction, is willing to swear that he doesn't have the slightest idea who is behind the posters. "I can only guess that they must be people in the party who want to send me a message," he says. "After all, there is a debate here between two approaches - whether we should join up with another political body or run on our own - and it's important for everyone to push for his view."

To conduct this debate, a few dozen of the party faithful crowded into Herut's office on Hamasger Street one evening last week. "They are high-quality people," Kleiner states proudly, though he is well aware that what counts in elections is quantity, not quality - and in the meantime, very few Israelis appear to be aware that a party named Herut exists and that it considers itself the successor of the historical movement whose best-known leader was Menachem Begin.

Indeed, a large leap of the imagination is needed to say that Herut's office resembles the place from which countries are led: three dimly lit, somewhat untidy rooms with papers scattered around, a television droning and a few secretaries who complain that the boss has an overloaded schedule. Toward evening, after a long day in the Knesset, a weary Kleiner gets to the office and at long last manages to grab a bite to eat. The gastronomic offerings are not very impressive: a few slices of bread with white cheese and an unidentified red sauce.

With or without any connection to his overburdened schedule and his delicate political situation, Michael Kleiner suffered a stroke the week before last that was described as minor. As he drove through Ramat Aviv, a neighborhood in north Tel Aviv, not far from his home in the upscale Shikun Lamed area, he suddenly lost control of some of his limbs, swerved out of his lane of traffic and crashed into parked cars. Fortunately, no one was hurt. He was rushed to Ichilov Hospital and gradually began to recover. When his close assistant, Sara Tiktinsky, reflected aloud that he should perhaps give some thought to cutting down the pace and perhaps even give up his plans to run in the elections, "he almost threw a cup of tea at me," she says. Kleiner was released from hospital on Sunday and is back in business - or so he hopes.

Over the weekend, as he mustered the strength to return to the political melee, posters at intersections around the country heralded his campaign. "Herut under Michael Kleiner - the answer to Tibi and Bishara," they declared, referring to two Arab MKs, Ahmed Tibi and Azmi Bishara. The posters feature Herut written in a deep blue with a Star of David, Kleiner against the background of the Israeli flag, and Tibi and Bishara in yellow against a black background, colors that stand for virulent animals that have to be eradicated.

At the conclusion of the initial phase of the campaign Kleiner will commission opinion surveys and will then have to decide whether he - that is, Herut - will in fact run alone. He is well aware of the risks: "I very much hope to run on my own, but we have to be realistic. You need almost enough votes for two seats in order to enter the Knesset, and my evaluation is that I am hovering around the minimum number of votes needed. I am convinced that we have tens of thousands of supporters, but people are afraid to take a chance on a list that may not get into the Knesset and thus will waste their vote."

But isn't it the case that there are many others who don't even know you exist?

"Unfortunately, that is so. To this day I get letters saying, `Well done MK Kleiner, the only person in the Likud that we can rely on.' I have a lot of complaints about the media in this connection. When I am invited to appear on television - which doesn't happen very often - the caption almost always describes me as being an MK from the National Union. I often put forward a distinctive point of view, but when we talk to editors of current events programs they tell us they've already invited MK Avigdor Lieberman, as though he has been authorized to speak on behalf of the entire right. If I'm actually invited to a program, it's in order to ridicule me - they don't really want to give a platform to other opinions."

And if you decide not to run alone?

"The alternative is to run in the Likud, where my situation is good, but that would involve a great many compromises, and I just don't have it in me to do that."

Sources in the Likud, however, say that a lack of desire to compromise is not the only thing preventing Kleiner's return to his mother-party. Kleiner, they say, simply has no chance in the primaries - after all, he has not been an integral part of the Likud for a long time.

If Kleiner runs - alone or as part of another party - slain Rabbi Meir Kahane will have good cause to smile in his grave. Fourteen years after the Central Elections Committee disqualified his party and 12 years after his assassination, at long last there will finally be a party in Israel that will not shame his legacy. In recent years Kleiner has placed himself at the far right end of the political map, bypassing even the advocates of "transfer" (expulsion of Arabs) in the Moledet party. Kleiner is counting, almost declaratively, on many voters who say that since Kahane's death "we simply have no one to vote for," as Kleiner puts it. The results will supply the answer to a question that was not put to the test during the 1990s: Is there a mandate for Kahanism?

Kahane's positive side

After launching his career as a student activist in the Likud - a member of the same generation as Limor Livnat, the late Micha Reiser, Roni Milo and Michael Eitan - Kleiner became a Likud MK and for years was considered a loyalist of David Levy. More recently he has hooked up with groups that are considered abominations in the political establishment. In November 2001, he spoke at the annual memorial ceremony for Meir Kahane which is held in Jerusalem's Givat Shaul neighborhood. His theme was "The fine and positive aspects of Rabbi Kahane's doctrine."

Could you say something about those aspects of Kahane?

"The man made a decisive contribution to getting the gates of the Soviet Union opened to the refusenik Jews. He loved his people and his country. He did a great deal for Jewish defense in the United States: His activity infused Jewish youth with a great deal of strength and power."

But aren't we talking about the same person who had large parts of his doctrine described by the courts as tainted with Nazism?

"I don't think he considered himself a racist. His motives were not racist. He made statements and sponsored bills that I was against, but there a lot of people I don't agree with but whom I nevertheless pay my respects to and eulogize."

Beyond paying respect to the deceased rabbi, Kleiner is in close touch with Kahane's living admirers - those known for the past few years as "former Kach people," referring to the name of Kahane's movement - led by well-known figures such as Baruch Marzel, Noam Federman and Itamar Ben Gvir. The members of this group are regulars in Kleiner's office in the Knesset. Whereas others on the right, such as MK Avigdor Lieberman, try to keep their distance from them, Kleiner's door is always open to them. He issues them entry passes to the Knesset building and wages legal and parliamentary battles on their behalf. Kleiner: "Those who come to see me are the moderates in Kach, such as Marzel and Federman, not people like Baruch Goldstein [who massacred 29 Muslims while they were praying in the mosque of the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron] and Yigal Amir [the assassin of Yitzhak Rabin]. I think they are treated wrongly; they are persecuted. Other MKs hide their ties with them, and the difference is that I meet with them openly."

Among his efforts on behalf of the Kach group, Kleiner has tried to have the movement removed from the government's list of terrorist organizations. Itamar Ben Gvir has nothing but praise for the devoted MK: "Our main goal is to entrench civil rights and democracy. He works hard to right the wrongs that the police and the state prosecution cause us."

Can we say that Kleiner is the ambassador of Kach in the Knesset?

Ben Gvir: "We are in agreement on many of the key issues, but there are also disagreements. For example, about what should be done to the Israeli Arabs. But his efforts to encourage emigration [of Arabs] and his battle for the Temple Mount are very positive, and as it is said, `Your deeds shall bring you closer [to others] and your deeds shall also draw you apart.'"

If he runs alone, will your group support him?

"It's too early to say. I don't want to commit myself when so much can happen before the elections. You also have to remember that our views, those of the `Kachniks,' are not the most militant these days. There are some who have long since passed us and that believe in far more radical solutions regarding the Arabs."

The politics of demography

It's not by chance that Ben Gvir doesn't want to commit himself. The right-wing parties have identified the orphaned electorate at the far right of the political spectrum and believe that it has grown significantly during the two years of the intifada. Everyone will try to get those votes, but there is no one who has done more for them than Kleiner. For example, in his campaign he will maintain that Avigdor Lieberman is actually a leftist in disguise. To prove this thesis, Kleiner waves pages he printed from the Web site of the party Lieberman heads, Yisrael Beiteinu.

Are you saying that Lieberman is a leftist?

Kleiner: "Yes. People have a tendency to confuse blunt speech with opinions. I try to speak in a businesslike manner, but Lieberman has a coarse style that covers up moderate opinions. Two months ago, his Web site carried texts referring to the future establishment of a Palestinian state as a forgone conclusion, as though anyone who wants to be realistic has to take this into account. After I criticized this approach, the site changed, but not Lieberman. He is still talking about a territorial compromise, not least because - and I quote - he wants `to meet my brothers on the left halfway.' I think it is important for the public to be aware of this and to be able to distinguish between us."

Although Kleiner has a point in connection with Lieberman's rough-hewn style, his attempt to depict himself as a practitioner of refined speech looks a bit problematic following a perusal of the archives. In the course of the last Knesset, the well-dressed attorney, some of whose friends this week called him a "Polish gentleman," voiced reactions that were phrased in crass terms after every security or political event. After the assassination of Moledet leader and tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi, he stated, "I am afraid that the prime minister has simply gone crazy"; and on other occasions, "Israel elected a security cannon and got a prime minister in shellshock from Sabra and Chatila"; [U.S. Secretary of State Colin] Powell's demand for an end to the occupation "is lying and presumptuous"; "His place is in Sonya's kitchen, not Sharon's kitchen cabinet" (referring to Shimon Peres and his wife); "The prime minister has to internalize the fact that he was elected in order to get rid of Arafat's animal farm"; "Barak was a brave soldier on the field of battle but is a wretched soldier with no vision on the political field of battle" (spoken when Ehud Barak was still prime minister).

Although Kleiner complains about not being invited to appear on television, the Knesset reporters of the daily press tried not to miss his responses to events. "The reporters will always take his reaction because he will say the most extreme thing," one of the reporters observes. Says another: "There is an inverse ratio between the size of Kleiner's faction and the astronomical number of beeper messages he and his assistant send out to the correspondents."

Despite Kleiner's tendency to resort to gimmicks in order to attract attention, he is considered an industrious and well-informed parliamentarian. He works late in the Knesset and is constantly submitting bills. The content of some of those bills kept the Knesset's legal adviser busy, and he disqualified some of them on grounds of racism. Kleiner doesn't understand. He simply thinks that the state should take a number of steps that will ensure that there are more Jews and fewer Arabs here. For example, by encouraging emigration of Arabs. To that end, he submitted a bill according to which every Israeli who would like to immigrate to an Arab state will receive financial subsidization and in return will renounce his Israeli citizenship. This idea, according to the glossy pamphlet he has prepared for the election campaign, "marked him as the most right-wing and the most sane person in Israeli politics." Kleiner denies that there is anything racist about the proposed legislation: "The package will be offered to Jews, too," he says. "If a family from Tel Aviv wants to move to an Arab country, and they are ready to admit them, then ahlan wasahlan."

Why is the offer only valid for Arab countries? I'm sure that many Israelis would be happy to move to Europe or America if the state were to promise them financial assistance. Could it be that underlying the idea is the desire to be rid of the country's Arab citizens?

"The Arab states are the milieu we live in. Okay, if we're going to be realistic, obviously I want to encourage the departure of hostile people. Anyone who wants to leave and will feel comfortable in an Arab country, where they will be part of the majority culture, should be given our help."

The emigration bill is not the only idea advanced by Kleiner to cope with what the election pamphlet calls "the problem of the hostility shown by the majority of Israel's Arabs." He is convinced that "there are hardly any Israeli Arabs; there are Israel-hating Palestinians who hold Israeli citizenship." This being the case, after he thins them out with the help of a financial grant, he will make sure that those who remain think twice about whether they have any reason to stay, either. With this in mind he formulated another bill: making the right to vote and receiving a certificate of citizenship contingent on an oath of allegiance to the Jewish state, the flag and the national anthem. Jewish, by the way - not democratic. Anyone who does not take the oath will be stripped of his citizenship and lose the right to vote. This, too, of course, is a bill that contains not an iota of racism. After all, Kleiner argues, anyone can declare allegiance to the state, irrespective of his creed or ethnic origin.

Do you want to give a million Arab citizens the humiliating choice between taking a loyalty oath to the Jewish people or depriving them of their basic right to be equal citizens?

"I want to remove all the hostile and disloyal people from the political game."

There would undoubtedly be many Jews who would refuse to take such an oath, and the fact that you dropped the word "democratic" for some reason wouldn't incline them to change their minds. Will they also lose their citizenship?

"I will be sorry if there are such people, but I don't imagine there will be many."

If, as you claim, the entire goal of the Arabs is to seize control of the country and destroy it, what will prevent them from taking the oath falsely and undermining the country from within?

"I think their hostility toward us stems from a natural and proud national approach, and therefore I believe that very few of them will take the oath falsely."

But even the Arabs - and this includes the Druze and the Bedouin - who swear allegiance to the state and even serve in the army will not be able to get far in the Israel that Kleiner envisions. If it were up to him, the status of Arabic as the country's second official language, should be annulled. Another of his bills stipulates that an Arab cannot be prime minister.

And this, too, of course, is a notion that is totally untainted by racism?

"Correct. First of all, I am not saying that an Arab cannot become prime minister. What I am saying is that only a Jew can become prime minister - and that's a big difference. Besides, I checked what is happening in other countries. In the United States, for example, the head of state, the president, must be born in the United States, because the concept is that it's a territorial state and therefore the leader must be a person who represents the concept - someone who was born in the territory. The concept of Israel is that it is a Jewish state, and therefore the person who heads it must be a Jew."

The Knesset's legal adviser disqualified that bill, too, because of its odor of racism. However, that hardly stopped Kleiner. He is convinced that the paramount problem threatening Israel's existence is the demographic balance in the country, and he is determined to do something about it. Surprisingly, this point of departure leads him to oppose the "transfer" idea. Not, heaven forbid, on moral grounds: "Transfer is a gimmick. It is not a serious solution. Anyone who claims that our problems will be solved by a transfer [operation] is deluding the public exactly like someone who claims that we will have peace if we return to the 1967 borders. Beyond the fact that it's not realistic to carry out a transfer now, the fact is that even if there is a transfer there will still be more than a million Palestinians who don't want us here within the borders of Israel, and within half a generation we will again find ourselves in a demographically inferior situation."

In other words, what bothers you about the transfer idea as espoused by Moledet is that it is only partial and doesn't include Israel's Arab citizens?

"What bothers me is that it is presented as a comprehensive solution to the problem but it's only a gimmick. We have to cope in a far more thorough fashion with this problem."

Kleiner suggests that this coping be done by means of a special ministry for demographic affairs (he will be pleased to head it), which he likens to the function of a kind of demographic "accountant." The idea would be to try to increase the revenues (Jews) and reduce expenses (Arabs). Kleiner, evoking the "iron wall" concept of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, the founder of the Revisionist movement that was the forerunner of the original Herut - urges the creation of a "demographic wall." According to this plan, the ministry of demographics would encourage Jews to have more children and assist Jewish singles to meet potential partners in order to bring about the birth of as many children as possible of the right race.

Bomb the Palestinian cities

But Kleiner knows that until the vision of the demographic iron wall becomes a reality there are a few more immediate problems that Israel has to cope with and resolve. For example, what to do with 3 million Palestinians who are fed up with the occupation. Unlike most right-wing spokesmen, who are preparing the public for a lengthy confrontation, Kleiner asserts that "if I were to take over in the Prime Minister's Bureau, I would strive for total quiet within 10 minutes. If the present situation continues, all the systems in this country are liable to collapse."

Kleiner has no intention of bringing about the quiet he talks about by means of negotiations. He will simply - so simply! - ask the IDF to win. This victory will be achieved by sending the army into the Gaza Strip and occupying it completely along with the reoccupation of the entire West Bank, including the refugee camps and the city centers; and, the icing on the cake, by sending in the Air Force to bomb Palestinian cities where terrorist activity exists (all of them, that is). Faithful to the tenets of humanism, Kleiner proposes giving the inhabitants of the cities the opportunity to save their skin by distributing pamphlets that will warn of the impending bombing raid. Anyone who decides to stay will suffer the consequences.

It's difficult to know whether Kleiner really and truly believes that dropping tons of explosives on densely populated cities will solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or whether he is merely spouting slogans that are intended to speak to the angry fringes of the Israeli electorate. As for what will happen after the bombing is completed, he doesn't really have a detailed answer: Where are the tens of thousands of refugees who will flee the cities supposed to go? (Jordan, obviously, will close the Jordan River bridges and seal its border; even now, it's not easy for Palestinians to gain entry to Jordan.) How will the international community react to the discovery that thousands of civilians, including women and children, have been buried under the rubble of the devastated cities? And how, exactly, is all this supposed to bring about the eradication of terrorism? Kleiner is convinced that such fears derive from a defeatist approach: "They don't all have to flee. The ones who will leave are those who have a [bomb-making] laboratory or a terrorist headquarters next to their home - and we know that everyone there knows what exists, and where. Once the area around such sites is empty, no innocent people will be hurt, because, after all, the IDF hardly ever misses its target. And if people don't leave and a few hundred civilians are killed, then those who situated the terrorist bases in their midst will bear the blame."

Still, what will be the fate of the millions of occupied Palestinians in the wake of the bombing operation? What does Kleiner intend to offer them to bring about the quiet he promises? "There will be a military government, which from their point of view will be a lot better than their situation today. There is a suffering population there, because we did them wrong by bringing in the gang from Tunisia and imposing them on the population. The people there will be a lot better off under us."

If we are to believe Kleiner, the Palestinians, having been beaten into submission, will sit quietly until the end of time and watch as Israel flourishes between the sea and the river. To encourage their good behavior, Kleiner suggests "seizing control of their media and broadcasting to them in Arabic, and supervising their education system in the schools and universities to ensure that they do not incite against Israel." He is certain that this series of actions will not generate a regional war, because "if the Arab states believed that they could defeat us, they would have gone to war a long time ago."

Still, there is at least one country in the region with which Kleiner has an open account to settle: Jordan. Israel's eastern neighbor, he says, is located on part of the Israeli homeland, the "eastern Land of Israel," as he calls it: "That territory is included in the divine promise we received, which speaks of all the land as far as the Euphrates." Asked what connection a secular person like him has with divine promises given thousands of years ago, Kleiner replies, "I also fast on Yom Kippur and keep kosher on Passover, even though I am not religious."

If Jordan is actually occupied Israeli territory, why not go to war against the Hashemite Kingdom?

"Because we have a peace treaty with Jordan and I think treaties should be upheld as long as the other side does likewise. I fought against the treaty with Jordan with all my might, and if I had been a Knesset member at the time I would have voted against it, too. But if the Jordanians should go to war against us, I will view the territories we conquer as liberated land that belongs to us."

Professional

troublemaker

The 54-year-old Kleiner wasn't always on the extreme right of the Israeli political map. In 1970 he was chairman of the national students union as a Likud activist. He entered the Knesset 12 years later, at the young age of 34, but a glitch occurred on his way to the top: he bet on the wrong horse. In the battle for the succession in the Likud between Yitzhak Shamir and David Levy - after Menachem Begin's retirement - Kleiner went with Levy. In the 1984 elections he didn't get into the Knesset because he was on the hit list of the Shamir camp. He was re-elected in 1988, but ahead of the 1992 elections senior figures in the Likud warned him that "you will be punished if you stick with that Moroccan." Kleiner reported these remarks to Levy, and from there the way was short to Levy's famous "monkeys speech" in April 1992, in which, after his faction was almost wiped out in the internal Likud voting for the 1992 Knesset list, Levy said that some in the party treated him as though he had just come down from the trees. Kleiner again found himself out of the Knesset (though Levy, who had announced his resignation in the speech, soon retracted after reaching an accommodation with Shamir).

In the years he spent in the political wilderness, he served as chairman of the Amidar public housing company and chairman of Carmel Bank. Columnist Nahum Barnea of the mass-circulation daily Yedioth Ahronoth called Kleiner "a product of the court of the contractor Dudi Appel" (who is reputed to be a powerful behind-the-scenes puller of strings in certain sections of Israeli politics). Kleiner was also among those who visited Aryeh Deri - another good friend of Appel's - when the former Shas party leader served time in prison.

In the 1996 elections Kleiner and Levy resumed their cooperation within the framework of the Gesher party, but soon had a falling out over policy. Kleiner stood out in the new Knesset as the chairman of the "Land of Israel Front," whose activity made it difficult for the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to make concessions to the Palestinians. By the time of the 1999 elections, Kleiner found a party that was more suited to his political temperament: he was given the fourth slot on the list of the National Union, the party that was the great hope of the right wing. The first three slots were taken by the party's leader Rehavam Ze'evi, Hanan Porat and Benny Begin. The party disappointed its supporters by getting only four seats, but for Kleiner that was enough to keep him in the legislature for another term.

Once again, though, he soon had a falling out with the party he had run with. In short order he quarreled with Rehavam Ze'evi, even though they shared the same ideas in terms of policy. In this period the relations between them were described as no less than mutual deep loathing. In one meeting of the Knesset faction, Ze'evi lashed out at Kleiner using particularly vicious language. The media reported that he called Kleiner a "repellent insect," but Kleiner himself admits that the actual phrase - which did in fact come from the insect world - was far more brutal. In a letter to Kleiner, Ze'evi wrote, "From my brief acquaintance with you I have learned that this is your way and that your loyalty is only to your own interests, even if important matters come to ruin and destruction." Kleiner says he doesn't want to comment on the harsh words the assassinated minister used against him.

After the National Union hooked up with Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party, Kleiner left and established a one-person faction, Herut. Although Kleiner is highly regarded in the Knesset as an articulate speaker and for his sharp legal mind, his propensity to split with his party has given him the reputation of a professional troublemaker: "He doesn't get along with anyone. He's a soloist, an outsider," says a veteran parliamentary reporter. To which another longtime Knesset correspondent adds, "He has the reputation of shattering party frameworks, of someone who is liable to topple your faction, a troublemaker. He will finish you off before you can finish him off."

Many view him as something of an oddball in the House; rarely, for example, does he practice the ritual of ensconcing himself in the Knesset cafeteria with fellow MKs and reporters. Usually he is to be found huddling with his close assistant, Sara Tiktinsky, who was herself a candidate for the Knesset on the National Union list - in the 12th slot. She, too, has equally vehement views about how to deal with the Arab-Israeli conflict. "If you think I'm the extremist in the room, you're wrong," Kleiner says with a smile during the interview.

God's justice

Even before election day, Kleiner may well have to get over another hurdle. MK Ophir Pines-Paz (Labor) has stated that he will request that Kleiner's list be disqualified from running on grounds of racism. Kleiner is not impressed: "There is no chance of that. Since I am fond of Ophir, I am certain he is doing this in order to better my prospects of getting into the Knesset." The impression is that Kleiner can hardly wait for Pines to make his move, as this will only improve his position among potential voters on the far right. After all, they have not forgotten who the last Knesset candidate was to be barred from running for identical reasons.

Kleiner, too, intends to use the disqualification weapon. He has declared that he will demand that Balad, MK Azmi Bishara's party, be barred from running. That will be the natural sequel to the love affair that developed between Kleiner and the Arab MKs in the outgoing Knesset. It was Kleiner who put forward the motion - which was accepted - of limiting the freedom of movement of MK Ahmed Tibi in the territories; it was Kleiner who proposed that Arab MKs be subjected to a security x-ray when they enter the Knesset, in case one of them should desire to become a shaheed - a martyr for the cause - in the chamber; and it was Kleiner who was quick to assert, following Bishara's famous speech in Damascus, that "in any normal country he would be brought before a firing squad."

As a lawyer, weren't you rather quick to convict him?

"What I said was not understood correctly. Few people know this, but Israeli law stipulates the death penalty for treason in wartime. In my opinion, Bishara prima facie is in breach of the law that constitutes treason. I think he should be placed on trial and, if convicted, I believe there is a good chance that he will be sentenced to death. In that case, the appropriate death is at the hands of a firing squad, because a firing squad is identified with treason, as in the case of [the Romanian dictator Nicolae] Ceausescu. The electric chair is associated more with criminal affairs."

Bishara is not the only Israeli citizen whose life should be abridged by the state, according to Kleiner. A few months ago, he submitted a bill according to which "any citizen who committed treason or joined the ranks of terrorism will be sentenced to death." On the other hand, one person whom Kleiner has tried to defend is Yigal Amir, the assassin of Yitzhak Rabin. Kleiner submitted a bill that would annul the so-called "Yigal Amir law," which deprives the state president of the power to amnesty a convicted assassin of a prime minister. "It is not the task of the Knesset to decide whose blood is redder, that of a prime minister or of a taxi driver" the Herut election pamphlet states, and explains, "We also have to leave something for the justice of God."

_{By Aviv Lavie}