Israeli leadership candidate vows to reject US military aid

The think tank here at Falling Downs has had Moshe Feiglin on the radar since that crop circle incident five years ago.

In the interval, Feiglin has fired up more than his bong; he’s fired up a new political party too. To say the man brings some intriguing ideas to the election is an understatement of epic proportions.

He wants to privatize health care. Then Israel will presumably have health outcomes more aligned with the US, which has the most expensive health care system in the world with outcomes that barely rise to mediocre.

And by all means, lets privatize education too! Haiti boasts an education system 90% in private hands and provides an inspirational model.

Paying Palestinians to leave isn’t exactly an original idea, and while it would no doubt draw the wrath of the human rights hand-wringers, it would be vastly preferable, at least in PR terms, to shooting them down at the Gaza fence.

Nor is annexing the West Bank an original idea. It needs to be fleshed out a little, though. Do you annex before you pay them to leave? Or do you pay them to leave first? What if they take the money and don’t leave? Clearly this needs a little more thought.

But where Feiglin’s genius shines through is in his vow to never take another penny in American military aid. This is going to be enormously disruptive to US politics, where for many years political careers have been made and unmade on the basis of who can promise to lavish the most free stuff on Israel.

Obviously, Moshe has not thought this through. Is it really his intention give succour to the new wave of anti-Semites infiltrating the Democratic Party?

I’m sure Ilhan Omar would love this idea…