Arnon Segal, the brother of Channel 12 News analyst Amit Segal and son of Makor Rishon Editor-in-Chief Hagai Segal, is a journalist, Temple Mount activist, and now one of the most surprising names in the Religious Zionist Party's primaries, which have been set for Aug. 23.
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Speaking with Israel Hayom, Segal voices a hard line on the Temple Mount issue and does not shy away from criticizing Former PM Benjamin Netanyahu – criticism that is rarely heard from the parties comprising the National Camp.
"I went into politics over my Temple Mount activities," Arnon said. "For over a decade, I've been writing about the injustices done to Jews on the Temple Mount. On the one hand, public awareness has increased, but the State has done little to change the situation there for the past 40 years.
"The Jews there are treated like a doormat and we cannot accept this. This is an injustice that is no different than what was done to the blacks in the US in the 1950s. This is apartheid policy that we have endorsed."
Arnon has no interest in rebuilding the Temple "at this time," but demands freedom access and ritual on the flashpoint site.
"What we are demanding is for Jews to be allowed to enter their holiest site through all the gates. If the state rules freedom of rite and access without discrimination, I think that this would be considered the Redemption. We'd no longer have to fast on Tisha B'Av," he said, referring to the fast commemorating the destruction of the Temples.
Q: Are you prepared to pay the price changing of status quo on the Temple Mount would exact?
"When Netanyahu barred Jews from the Temple Mount, they [Gaza terrorists] fired missiles on us. The price for peace and quiet keeps increasing – but peace and quiet never come. The problem is that we have never tried another course of action. I think that the Jewish people should know how to pay a price for their holy sites."
Not everyone agrees with Segal on this issue. Many rabbis, including Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, have ruled against Jews ascending the Mount, and have denounced Segal for his activities on the issue.
"It pained me to hear what he said," Segal remarked. "It's blasphemous. He prefers having the enemy up there, than us."
Segal said that before he announced his Religious Zionist Party bid, he was approached to join the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, but rejected the notion. "I believe in primaries and having the public make a choice," he explained.
Segal has been lambasted by Netanyahu's supporters, who call him a "leftwinger," and these attacks have increased since he announced his RZP primari bid. His father and brother are also often accused of "betraying the Right" and supporting former Prime Minister Naftali Bennet's government.
"Bennet's move was a desecration of God's name," Segal says about the former Yamina leader's decision to pursue a coalition that included left-wing parties and – for the first time in Israel's history – an Arab faction. "A religious man who, in the name of his personal aspirations, greatly undermined the Right, which already has internal disputes. He has caused substantial damage to politicians' credibility."
Segal does not hide his criticism of Netanyahu, either, and often says things that have not been said publicly for years by anyone in the parties making up the right-wing bloc.
"Netanyahu's years in power had a Right-wing government in name only. It was hollow," he charges. "Since Netanyahu took office in 1996, new mosques were built on the Temple Mount. He didn't apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, didn't defeat Hamas, prevented judicial reforms, and appointed all functionaries the Likud now opposes, like [former State Attorney] Shai Nitzan.
"He avoided expressing a Right-wing policy at every possible junction. The person to partner with the Left, with [Blue and White leader Benny] Ganz, [Yesh Atid leader Yair] Lapid, [Ehud] Barak and Tzipi Livni was Netanyahu, and it's possible he'll do it again before he turns to us."
Q: You said that there is no difference between Netanyahu and Lapid on Right-wing issues.
"If you look at the past year and the 20th Knesset, which was the ultimate Right-wing government - I can't see a big difference. There were times when I thought that if Netanyahu would step aside [as Likud leader], the Right would be back in power. Today I think that Netanyahu is not the story. If the Right unites – the Right will be in power."
Q: Are you in favor of a unity government headed by Ganz or Lapid?
"I am loyal to the National Camp – there is no scenario in which we partner with anyone else, not with Ganz and not with Lapid. I have to answer this question only because unfortunately, there is a witch hunt on the Right, but that does not represent all Likud supporters, and we have to remain united in order to return to government."
As the public reels from new revelations on potential coverups of police brutality and corruption, Segal notes "a violent policeman must be penalized," and describes the legal system as "corrupt and rotten."
The judiciary, he believes, needs to undergo a three-pronged reform: "We need to split the role of the attorney general, remove judges from the Judicial Nominations Committee, and deny the High Court of Justice the ability to annul laws. It annoys me that they [politicians] remembered [to challenge] the legal system only in Netanyahu's case. What about the Duma case? I interviewed Judge [Meir] Shamgar on it and he said that it [the confessions obtained from the suspects] wasn't admissible."
Segal also slams the way the ultra-Orthodox establishment has been persecuting Reform worshippers at the Western Wall.
"There is a plaza for Reform prayer. I can't stand the attacks on them – attacks on people who have come to pray, even if they don't follow halachic guidelines. What they are doing to the Reform worshippers is like a Jewish waqf. They don't have to go there just to harass them."
Q: Do you support cooperation with Ra'am?
Ra'am leader "Mansour Abbas meets with known terrorist sympathizers. In this regard they [Ra'am] are representatives of the enemy in the Knesset, just like the Joint Arab List."
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