Likud

Likud, right-wing Israeli political party. It was founded in September 1973 to challenge the Israel Labour Party, which had governed the country since its independence in 1948, and first came to power in 1977, with Menachem Begin as prime minister. For decades thereafter, Likud alternated in government with left-wing coalitions, forming coalitions with minor parties, especially those with an ultrareligious or a nationalist ideology. Because of the country’s political fragmentation and unique security needs, Likud and its competitors have sometimes entered into so-called “unity governments” with one another.

Formation and ideology

At its founding in 1973, the Likud coalition was dominated by the Gahal bloc, which consisted of the Herut (“Freedom”) party and the Liberal Party (Miflaget ha-Liberali). The Herut had its roots in Vladimir Jabotinsky’s Revisionist Zionism, popular especially among Russian Jews of the 1920s and ’30s. It was formally organized in 1948, the year of Israel’s independence, in the merger of preindependence groups such as the Irgun Zvai Leumi. Some of the groups had been considered terrorist organizations by the British authorities. Begin, a Polish-born Jew, had been leader of the Irgun. The other member of the Gahal bloc, the Liberal Party, was formed in 1961 in the merger of the General Zionist Party (active from 1948 to 1961) and the smaller Progressive Party. Staunchly Zionist, the Liberal Party advocated retention of all territories conquered by Israel in the Six-Day War. The other partners in Likud were relatively small, though they were often influential.

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Israel: Israel under Likud

Ideologically, Likud is both conservative and nationalist. It took an equivocal stance toward the 1993 peace accord between Israel (signed for the country by the Labour-led government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Although Likud supported a peace with guarantees of security, it opposed ceding major portions of land to Palestinian control and dismantling Israeli settlements in the territories that Israel had conquered in 1967. However, in subsequent years the party grew increasingly divided over its policies concerning a two-state solution. In the early 21st century it adopted a policy opposing the establishment of a Palestinian state under any conditions. Consequently, those in the party who supported the implementation of a two-state solution splintered off into the Kadima (“Forward”) party.

Rise in prominence

During Begin’s prime ministership (1977–83), Israel signed a peace treaty with Egypt, for which Begin was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with Egyptian Pres. Anwar Sadat, and launched a controversial invasion of Lebanon. Although Begin’s peace initiative was popular both at home and abroad, it alienated many party stalwarts who opposed the return of any territories. In 1983 he was succeeded as prime minister and party leader by Yitzḥak Shamir, who governed in coalition with the Israel Labour Party from 1984 to 1990. Likud was ousted from government by a Labour-led coalition in 1992, and in 1993 Shamir was succeeded as party leader by Benjamin Netanyahu, who led the Likud coalition back to power in 1996. Netanyahu was defeated in 1999 by Labour’s Ehud Barak, but in 2001, capitalizing on increasing attacks by Palestinians against Israelis, Likud candidate Ariel Sharon convincingly defeated Barak. With Israel facing attacks from the second Palestinian intifadah, Sharon subsequently formed a unity government with Labour. In 2003 Likud doubled its seats in the Knesset from 19 to 38. After Labour refused to join a coalition, Sharon formed a coalition government with Shinui, a centrist party, the National Religious Party (Mafdal), and an electoral coalition representing nationalist and ethnic Russian voters. In 2005 a Likud-led government under Sharon’s leadership oversaw a complete pullout of Israeli soldiers and settlers from the Gaza Strip. Many Likud members opposed Sharon’s disengagement policy, and in November 2005 he left Likud to form the centrist party Kadima (“Forward”), taking many Likud moderates with him. In parliamentary elections in March 2006, Kadima won the largest share of seats. By then the party was being led by Ehud Olmert, Sharon having suffered a debilitating stroke. Likud, led by Netanyahu after Sharon’s departure, fared poorly in the election, finishing fourth.

Likud under Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership

In the 2009 general election, Kadima again led with the most Knesset seats (28); this time, however, Likud finished in second place, a single seat behind Kadima. Because of the close and inconclusive nature of the results, it was not immediately clear whether Netanyahu or Tzipi Livni—who had been elected to lead Kadima in September 2008—would be invited to form a coalition government. Netanyahu was able to gather the support of a number of key parties in the days that followed, and, in spite of Likud’s second-place finish, Pres. Shimon Peres invited Netanyahu to form the government.

Likud would remain in power under Netanyahu for more than a decade, at times by fragile coalitions and oscillating between centrist and right-wing coalitions. Though Netanyahu’s coalition initially included Labour as its only left-wing constituent, the party resigned in January 2011. In May 2012, after a dispute within the right-wing coalition over military draft exemptions for Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jews threatened to force early elections, Likud formed a short-lived unity government with Kadima. Early elections were ultimately called for January 2013, and Likud ran in a combined list with the nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party. Both parties kept their own political platforms. The Likud–Yisrael Beiteinu bloc won the largest number of seats, returning Netanyahu to the prime ministership. However, the alliance fell short of expectations, winning fewer seats than the two parties had won separately in 2009. The bloc formed a centrist coalition with Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid and Livni’s newly formed party, Hatnua.

Unsatisfied with his partnership with Yesh Atid and Hatnua, Netanyahu called for early elections, which were held in March 2015. Although analysts predicted a tight race between Likud and the Zionist Union, a centre-left alliance comprising the Labour and Hatnua parties, results showed a surprising victory for Likud, which won 30 seats, more than any other party. Netanyahu formed a narrow coalition that included small far-right parties and Yisrael Beiteinu’s Avigdor Lieberman as defense minister. According to many observers, the government was the most right-wing in Israel’s history up to that point. The coalition nearly survived a full term, but a renewed dispute over draft exemptions for Haredi Jews led to early elections.

That dispute, combined with an announcement that Netanyahu was to be indicted for criminal corruption charges, proved enough to prevent a new government from taking form in 2019. The Haredi parties and Yisrael Beiteinu were fundamentally at odds over the draft exemptions, and, after two sets of elections (one in April and one in September), Likud was unable to form a coalition without the support of both groups. Attempts to form a unity government with the centre-left Blue and White alliance likewise failed: Netanyahu insisted on serving as prime minister even as he faced indictment, and the leaders of Blue and White refused to accede.

A third set of elections was set for March 2020, while Netanyahu faced a December 2019 challenge for party leadership from former cabinet member Gideon Saʿar. He survived the challenge, and, although Netanyahu faced an imminent trial, Likud made significant gains in the March elections, bolstered both by voter fatigue and by the release of the United States’ long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, which was favourable to Israel. Although Likud still did not have enough support to form a coalition, the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country prompted a unity deal signed in late April that would allow Netanyahu to lead an emergency government for 18 months.

The unity government failed to pass an annual budget by the end of 2020, leading to the dissolution of the Knesset in December and to a new round of elections set for March 2021. Saʿar, again taking aim at Netanyahu’s leadership, formed a new party to contest the elections, taking several members of Likud with him. The new party gained only a handful of seats in the Knesset, however, while Likud achieved a number comparable to that of recent elections.

Beginning in June 2021—for the first time in more than a decade—Likud entered into the opposition after being unseated by a broad spectrum of parties united in their effort to remove Netanyahu from office. But the historic coalition had disparate visions for the country’s direction, including those of right-wing parties dedicated to enforcing a Jewish identity in public institutions and that of a party that represented the interests of Israel’s large Palestinian minority. Likud stoked defections from the government’s rightmost members, and in June 2022 it forced the coalition to confront its fault lines by refusing to back urgent legislation that was nonetheless divisive for the governing coalition. Unable to move forward with that legislation, the Knesset was dissolved later that month.

When elections were held in November 2022, Likud indirectly benefited from voters concerned about an erosion of Israel’s Jewish identity. Disaffected after the previous election by the willingness of several right-wing leaders to court the support of Palestinian citizens of Israel, many right-wing voters shifted their support to the far-right Religious Zionism Party, which had staunchly opposed sitting in a government that would rely on Palestinian support. It emerged as the third largest party in the Knesset and helped give the right-wing bloc, led by Likud, a majority of seats.