MONGABAY.COM
Mongabay.com seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development (more)
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
|
|
Israel
Index
In the ninth Knesset elections in May 1977, the center-right
Likud alliance emerged victorious and replaced the previously
dominant Labor alignment for the first time in the history of
independent Israel. The Likud Bloc, founded in 1973, consisted of
the Free Center, Herut (Tnuat HaHerut or Freedom Movement--see
Appendix B), Laam (For the Nation--see Appendix B), and Gahal
(Freedom-Liberal Bloc--see Appendix B). In large part, Likud was
the direct ideological descendant of the Revisionist Party,
established by Vladimir Jabotinsky in 1925
(see Revisionist Zionism
, ch. 1).
The Revisionist Party, so named to underscore the urgency of
revision in the policies of the WZO's Executive, advocated
militancy and ultranationalism as the primary political imperatives
of the Zionist struggle for Jewish statehood. The Revisionist Party
demanded that the entire mandated territory of historical Palestine
on both sides of the Jordan River, including Transjordan,
immediately become a Jewish state with a Jewish majority.
Revisionist objectives clashed with the policies of the British
authorities, Labor Zionists, and Palestinian Arabs. The Revisionist
Party, in which Menachem Begin played a major role, contended that
the British must permit unlimited Jewish immigration into Palestine
and demanded that the Jewish Legion be reestablished and that
Jewish youths be trained for defense.
The Revisionist Party also attacked the Histadrut, whose Labor
Zionist leadership under Ben-Gurion was synonymous with the
leadership of the politically dominant Mapai. Ben-Gurion accused
the revisionists of being "fascists"; the latter countercharged
that the policies being pursued by Ben-Gurion and his Labor Zionist
allies, including Chaim Weizmann, were so conciliatory toward the
British authorities and Palestinian Arabs and so gradual in terms
of state-building as to be self-defeating.
In 1933 the Revisionist Party seceded from the WZO and formed
the rival New Zionist Organization. After 1936 the revisionists
rejected British and official Zionist policies of restraint in the
face of Arab attacks, and they formed two anti-British and
anti-Arab guerrilla groups. One, the Irgun Zvai Leumi (National
Military Organization, Irgun for short) was formed in 1937; an
offshoot of the Irgun, the Stern Gang also known as Lehi (from
Lohamei Herut Israel, Fighters for Israel's Freedom), was formed in
1940
(see Historical Background
, ch. 5). These revisionist
paramilitary groups operated independently of, and at times in
conflict with, the official Zionist defense organization, the
Haganah; they engaged in systematic terror and sabotage against the
British authorities and the Arabs.
After independence Prime Minister Ben-Gurion dissolved the
Irgun and other paramilitary organizations such as Lehi and the
Palmach (see Glossary).
In 1948 remnants of the dissolved Irgun
created Herut.
In the mid-1960s, Herut took steps to broaden its political
base and attain greater legitimacy. In 1963 it established the
Blue-White (Tkhelet-Lavan) faction to contest the previously
boycotted Histadrut elections. In 1965 Herut and the Liberal Party
(see Appendix B)
formed Gahal (Gush Herut-Liberalim), a parliamentary and electoral
bloc, to contest both Knesset and Histadrut elections. The final
step in gaining greater political
legitimacy occurred just before the outbreak of the June 1967 War,
when Begin and his Gahal associates agreed to join the government
to demonstrate internal Israeli unity in response to an external
threat.
Gahal continued as part of the Meir cabinet formed after the
1969 elections. Gahal ministers withdrew from the cabinet in 1970
to protest what they believed to be Prime Minister Meir's
conciliatory policy on territorial issues
(see Foreign Relations
, this ch.). In the summer of 1973, Gahal organized the Likud
alignment in which Herut continued to be preeminent.
In the November 1988 elections, Likud lost one Knesset seat.
Nevertheless, observers believed that demographic indicators
favored continued support for Likud and its right-wing allies among
young people and Orientals.
The most prominent leaders of Likud in 1988, as in previous
years, were members of its Herut faction. They included Prime
Minister Shamir; Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Arens, a likely
successor to Shamir as leader of Herut; Deputy Prime Minister and
Minister of Housing David Levi, the chief Sephardic political
figure; Minister of Commerce and Industry Ariel Sharon; and Deputy
Minister of Foreign Affairs Benjamin Netanyahu.
Data as of December 1988
|
|