The meuchzavim, as they are known in Hebrew, are an apparently growing number of hard-core backers of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who voted for him because they opposed the Oslo peace accords, but in recent months have had second thoughts about their vote.
Now, the meuchzavim face a major decision about how they should vent their opposition to Netanyahu.
For most of them, it is a question of whether to take to the streets again to protest against the government, as during the Labor governments of Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. For a small minority of extremists, violence also is considered a potential tactic.
Security officials have issued repeated warnings that redeployment in Hebron is likely to spark a violent reaction in extremist Jewish circles, and that the prime minister himself might be a target.
Still, the meuchzavim are for the most part law-abiding citizens. They are upset with the government and struggling with how to express their opposition.
“You promised, we believed, you betrayed” is the title of a statement released this week by the Women in Green, a group that was among the most vocal opponents of the Labor government and a strong backer of Netanyahu during the election campaign.
Nadia Matar, the group’s leader, says the slogan sums up the feeling today of many Netanyahu supporters who consider themselves meuchzavim.
Representatives of an array of right-wing groups, including Zo Artzenu (This Is Our Land) and Women in Green, have been meeting in recent weeks to come up with a formula for “getting Netanyahu back on track.” The Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza also has been considering possible action.
The decision is far from simple. Protesting against Rabin and Peres was intended to benefit the political opposition. Today, despite the anger with Netanyahu, no one on the right wants Peres or anyone in the opposition to return to power.
The complexity of the decision the meuchzavim face explains the council’s flip-flop in recent weeks.
At a heated emergency meeting three weeks ago, the council made what was presented as a dramatic decision to demonstrate against the planned redeployment in Hebron, and the slowness of settlement development.
The next day, the group dropped its threat to take to the streets, after a meeting between council heads and Netanyahu. Council of Jewish Communities members left the meeting saying they were promised settlements not be restricted from developing.
Yet the settlement restrictions were not lifted, at least as much as the council wanted, so it again threatened to demonstrate against the government. On Friday of last week, council members staged a small sit-down strike outside the Prime Minister’s Office.
Still, plans for wide-scale protests remain on hold. Council leaders say they are reluctant to enter a public confrontation with Netanyahu and prefer to quietly lobby to change government policy.
Last week, the Women in Green came out strongly for public protest against Netanyahu’s policies in Judea and Samaria.
“We can wait no longer, when all indications are that by silence, and not criticizing Bibi, we are blindly showing support for a man who has not at all proven himself as yet to be a strong and inspirational leader,” the group said.
“While we do not in any way wish to partake in bringing this government down, we have decided that it is beneficial to the national cause to raise our voices in vigorous protest when we see the ominous signs of the direction which the present government is taking.”
Matar said her breaking point came well before talks advanced on a Hebron redeployment, when Netanyahu agreed to meet Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat last summer.
“After four years of protests, of going to jail, I expected things to be different this time,” said Matar.
Last week, as in the days of Labor, Matar again found herself dragged off in a police van, allegedly for disturbing the peace during a small protest in front of the prime minister’s residence.
And last week, the Chassidic Chabad movement, which during the May elections backed Netanyahu, showed its displeasure with the prime minister’s policies in the territories when thousands of Chabadniks converged on Hebron to protest any planned redeployment.
Chabad, unlike the Women in Green, has the numbers and influence to make Netanyahu listen. Several weeks ago, Chabad leaders met the prime minister to press him to make no concessions in the territories. They left the meeting disappointed.
Chabad spokesman Menahem Brod said the movement has second thoughts about its campaign slogan, “Bibi — Good for the Jews.”
“We have made our position clear to the prime minister,” Brod said. “But we also know that we must be careful, because we all know that the alternative to Bibi is Peres or someone else in Labor, and that we certainly don’t want.”
There are meuchzavim, however, who are not satisfied with normal protest. They “have decided to go out and look for their own future leader,” said Matar.
“The issue has already been raised at the weekly meetings of the smaller right-wing groups. It is too early to speak of particular names. But someone else will come up, and we must already begin laying the groundwork.”
Moshe Feiglin, head of Zo Artzenu, and Yehuda Etzion, a leader of the Jewish underground, have joined forces in a quest “to find a new Jewish leadership,” as they explain in a leaflet distributed at synagogues in Judea and Samaria last Shabbat.
“We have already established a small committee to search for a new candidate for premiership — not someone from the left or right, but someone that believes in the real values of Israel and Judaism,” says Etzion.
Etzion classifies himself as being a member of the meuchzavim, but says he has taken the term a step further than it generally is understood. Most meuchzavim have lost faith with Netanyahu. Etzion and a few others have lost faith with the entire system.