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Israel
THE BEGIN ERA
In the May 1977 elections, the Labor Party's dominance of Israeli
politics ended. The Likud Bloc--an alliance of Begin's Herut Party,
the Liberal Party, and other smaller parties formed in the aftermath
of the October 1973 War--formed a ruling coalition government
for the first time in Israel's history. Likud gained forty-three
seats, Labor dropped to thirty-two seats, down by nineteen from
the 1973 figure. Likud's supporters consisted of disaffected middle-class
elements alienated by the series of scandals, many new immigrants
from the Soviet Union, and large numbers of defecting Oriental
Jews. Begin appealed to many because he was viewed as incorruptible
and untarnished by scandal. He was a strong leader who did not
equivocate about his plans for a strong Israel (which he believed
included the occupied territories), or about his willingness to
stand up to the Arabs or even the superpowers if Israel's needs
demanded. Begin also attracted some veteran Labor Zionists for
whom his focus on Jewish settlement and self-reliance was reminiscent
of an earlier unadulterated Labor Zionism.
Begin's vision of Israel and its role in the region was deeply
rooted in the Revisionist platform with which he had been associated
since the days of Jabotinsky. He strongly advocated Israeli sovereignty
over all of Eretz Yisrael, which in his view included Jerusalem
and the West Bank, but not Sinai.
Data as of December 1988
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