When a prominent member of Likud, Israel’s ruling party whose name means “the consolidation,” was asked why he had left despite coming from a historic family of its leaders, he summed up the party’s fate under Benjamin Netanyahu by saying: “Likud today is like a bakery. The sign is still there, but in reality it has become a gambling cafe.”
اضافة اعلان
The speaker is no ordinary figure. He is Dr. Benny Begin, 83, son of the late Menachem Begin (1913–1992), the party’s founder and historic leader. Begin holds a doctorate in earth and mineral sciences and, in opposition to “Netanyahu’s Likud,” openly says: “I will not vote for Likud.”
Like Begin, many prominent figures — including the children of former senior Likud leaders — have distanced themselves from the party. Likud’s roots go back to what became known as Revisionist Zionism, which later developed into a political movement inspired by Ze’ev Jabotinsky, who challenged and took a more hard-line position than Zionism’s founder, Theodor Herzl.
Likud can be described as a liberal party in the sense of opposing the left and socialist ideas, but ideologically it belongs to the Zionist right. Its original vision held that a Jewish state should be established across the lands of Palestine, Jordan, southern Syria and Sinai. It believed Jews should fight and defeat the Arabs, after which a state could be established in which everyone would live together. Under that vision, if an Arab were elected prime minister, the deputy would be Jewish, and if a Jewish prime minister were elected, the deputy would be Arab.
When it spoke of war, it meant war in all its brutality and madness. Its members practiced violence and terrorism, before transforming into a political party following the establishment of Israel.
Menachem Begin, who led the party during that period, was determined to act as a “statesman.” He could disagree with the leadership to the greatest extent, but he accepted the majority’s decision. He believed in democracy and regarded David Ben-Gurion’s rule as extremely left-wing. He opposed imposing military rule on Arab citizens and resisted any interference with the judiciary or the law.
When Egyptian President Anwar Sadat visited Israel, Begin was prime minister. He received Sadat and engaged in difficult negotiations with him, ultimately signing a peace agreement that returned every inch of occupied Egyptian territory to Egypt.
When Sadat insisted on opening the door to a settlement of the Palestinian issue, Begin also signed an annex recognizing the Palestinian people’s legitimate right to self-determination.
Begin later launched the Lebanon War in 1982. When he realized that Ariel Sharon had dragged him into the war and, in turn, had dragged Israel into it, Begin held himself accountable, withdrew from public life and resigned as prime minister.
The New Era
Likud has been Israel’s ruling party since 1977 almost continuously, except for several periods when it lost power, including to Yitzhak Rabin from 1992 until his assassination in 1995.
Benjamin Netanyahu has led the party since 1996, apart from a few years when others headed it. Originally a nationalist-liberal party, Likud under Netanyahu — who grew up in a liberal household and was raised in the United States, which he likes to call “the mother of all democracies” — has adopted increasingly hard-line right-wing positions, to the point of extremism.
It has become a one-man party whose leader exercises enormous influence over its operations. Netanyahu has also led a challenge to Israel’s system of government and judiciary, turning Likud into a politically extreme party. With some “outside assistance,” he has succeeded in pulling much of the Israeli public further to the far right.
Since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, Netanyahu has led an increasingly dangerous trajectory of extremism, to the point of turning Israel into a threat to stability in the Middle East.
As a party, Likud has lost much of its support. Under its founder Menachem Begin, it once won 48 of the Knesset’s 120 seats in 1981, following the bombing of Iraq’s nuclear reactor.
Netanyahu later led the party down to 22 seats in 1996 and 12 in 2006. Nevertheless, he remained its leader and defeated all his internal rivals.
Likud rose to 35 seats in 2019 and 36 in 2020, before falling again to 29 seats in 2021. In the most recent election, however, Netanyahu managed to increase support among right-wing voters, bringing the party to 32 seats. During the parliamentary term, it also brought in Gideon Sa’ar, the foreign minister, whose party held four seats, giving Likud 36 seats in the Knesset today.
However, opinion polls warn that the party could fall to between 18 and 22 seats.
Even Netanyahu initially held liberal views and defended the judiciary. Although he opposed the Oslo Accords, he complied with them after becoming prime minister and proceeded to implement them, completing Israel’s withdrawal from 13% of the West Bank and from Hebron. He also declared his support for a two-state solution and held negotiations with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
His political shift came as signs emerged of personal corruption and an appetite for wealth. He pushed away influential political figures such as Begin and surrounded himself with lesser politicians and poor advisers whose main concern was pleasing him.
They discovered his vulnerability and exploited it, praising and glorifying him, convincing him that he was a genius and organizing chants such as “Bibi, King of Israel.”
People close to him acknowledge that they heard him say that God had blessed the Jewish people with him so that he could preserve and protect them as “lord of the nations and peoples.”
After consolidating his position at the top of Israel’s political leadership, Netanyahu began seeking control over the security establishment and clashed with military commanders, who, according to the article, were themselves blinded by arrogance and unwilling to allow anyone near their own sphere of influence.
Netanyahu then turned toward controlling the institutions of the state apparatus, particularly after police investigators, prosecutors and the judiciary dared to challenge him, prepared an indictment and brought him to trial on serious corruption charges.
Netanyahu became convinced that they wanted to send him to prison for several years, as they had done with his predecessor Ehud Olmert. His confrontation with them therefore became a matter of political survival.
National and strategic considerations were gradually overtaken by these calculations. Under Netanyahu, Likud was no longer truly Likud — a name meaning “consolidation” — but a one-man party, and Israel was no longer functioning as an ordinary state.
Instead, the country became governed according to the interests of one man. The article argues that this has reached the point where a war has been managed for three years because the conflict serves Netanyahu’s interest in remaining in power.
At times, Israelis themselves struggle to believe that their country has reached such a stage, asking: Could it be that our children died in a war to serve one person, with no benefit to Israel itself?
Source: Agencies
