Likud

Likud became a central force in Israeli politics after its 1977 electoral victory. Sources have variously described it as right-of-center, largely secular, nationalist, and rooted in Revisionist Zionism. Its governing outlook has combined support for Israeli sovereignty, including in the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — with free-market policies and respect for Jewish tradition.[1][2]

The party’s original platform called the Jewish people’s right to the Land of Israel “eternal and indisputable.” It rejected transferring Judea and Samaria to foreign administration and declared that “between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.” The same platform called peace “Our Central Objective” and supported direct negotiations with neighboring states without preconditions.[5]

Likud has led or participated in government during most years since 1977. Its leaders have been associated with the peace treaty with Egypt, the bombing of Iraq’s Osirak reactor, the Madrid Conference, the Gaza disengagement, and Netanyahu’s extended periods in office.[1]

Likud’s ideological roots lie in the Revisionist Zionist movement led by Ze’ev Jabotinsky. An official party biography states that Jabotinsky founded the Alliance of Revisionist Zionists in 1925 and headed Beitar. It describes the New Zionist Federation, Beitar, and Etzel as the movement’s political, educational, and military arms, respectively, and credits them with organizing more than forty ships carrying tens of thousands of clandestine immigrants.[6]

Menachem Begin commanded Etzel from 1943 until its dissolution in 1948 and then founded Herut. Herut and the Liberal Party formed the Gahal bloc in 1965.[7] A historical study characterizes the pre-1977 Herut tradition as strongly anti-socialist and uncompromisingly nationalist, while also noting its association with poorer social groups.[8]

In 1973, Gahal joined the Free Center, National List, and Labor Movement for Greater Israel to form Likud.[1][9] Ariel Sharon has been described as the prime mover behind the consolidation, while Begin was chosen to lead it.[2] Likud’s official history says Begin adopted a more moderate manner as leader of the new alliance.[9]

Likud’s principal themes have included Jewish sovereignty over the Land of Israel, skepticism toward territorial compromise, liberal economic policies, military strength, and preservation of Jewish tradition.[1][2] Its original platform rejected foreign administration in Judea and Samaria and asserted exclusive Israeli sovereignty between the Mediterranean and Jordan River.[5]

In government, however, Likud leaders have also made territorial or diplomatic accommodations. Begin returned Sinai to Egypt, Netanyahu signed the Hebron and Wye agreements, and Sharon dismantled Jewish communities in Gaza and parts of northern Samaria.[2] A 1996 Likud platform opposed an independent Palestinian state while supporting Palestinian self-government under continuing Israeli responsibility for defense and foreign affairs.[10] A 2022 party guide likewise reported opposition to Palestinian statehood and support for Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.[11]

Economically, Likud has promoted privatization, lower taxes, deficit reduction, and reduced government direction.[1][12] An interpretive analysis describes its early constituency as drawn substantially from religious and entrepreneurial Sephardic Jews and similarly oriented Ashkenazim.[13] Although secular, Likud has generally been more traditional in its approach to Jewish practice than Labor, while coalition agreements with ultra-Orthodox parties have affected policies concerning military service and religion.[2][11]

Likud won 39 Knesset seats in its first election in 1973.[2] In May 1977, it received 583,968 valid votes, or 33.4 percent, and won 43 seats. The Alignment received 430,023 votes, or 24.6 percent, and won 32 seats, making Likud the largest parliamentary group.[3]

The result ended approximately twenty-nine years of Labor-associated governments after independence. A longer historical reckoning counted nearly forty-six years from Mapai’s assumption of leading positions in the Yishuv in 1931.[8] The change became known as “the Upheaval.” Public anger over Labor’s handling of the 1973 war and a financial scandal during Yitzhak Rabin’s premiership contributed to the result.[1]

Likud’s greatest success came among Mizrahi voters, then commonly described as Oriental Jews, in urban ethnic neighborhoods and development towns.[8] Begin formed a coalition with the National Religious Party, Agudat Israel, and other parties and became the first prime minister outside the Labor tradition.[14]

Under Begin, Israel negotiated the Camp David Accords and signed a peace agreement with Egypt in Washington in 1979. Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize.[7] The agreement ultimately returned the entire Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, demonstrating that a Likud government could combine territorial nationalism with major diplomatic compromise.[2]

Begin’s government also accelerated Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria, enacted the Jerusalem Law concerning united Jerusalem, ordered the bombing of Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor, and launched Operation Peace for Galilee against terrorist infrastructure in Lebanon.[1][7]

Economically, the government initially pursued less state direction, fewer bureaucratic controls, and greater reliance on private enterprise. Its October 1977 program abolished exchange controls and moved toward a floating exchange rate, but rising consumption was accompanied by accelerating inflation and a larger trade deficit.[8] Likud nevertheless increased its representation to 48 seats in the 1981 election.[2]

Begin resigned in September 1983 amid the adverse situation in Lebanon and grief following his wife’s death.[7] His constitutional ideas also influenced Likud’s intellectual tradition: Begin and Herut had advocated presidential democracy, a formal separation of powers, judicial review, judicial supremacy, and a written constitution.[15]

Yitzhak Shamir joined Herut in the 1960s, entered the Knesset on Likud’s list in 1973, became Knesset speaker in 1977, and served as foreign minister from 1980. He succeeded Begin as prime minister in October 1983.[16]

After the 1984 election produced no clear winner, Labor and Likud formed a national-unity government. Shimon Peres served as prime minister for the first twenty-five months, with Shamir as vice prime minister and foreign minister; they switched positions in October 1986. Another unity government followed the 1988 election. After it collapsed in 1990, Shamir formed a narrower coalition with religious and right-wing parties.[14]

Shamir ordered Operation Solomon in May 1991, airlifting thousands of Ethiopian Jews to Israel, and represented Israel at the Madrid International Peace Conference that September. He stepped down as Likud leader after the party’s 1992 defeat.[16]

Benjamin Netanyahu was elected Likud leader in 1993 after Shamir’s retirement.[4] On May 29, 1996, he narrowly defeated Shimon Peres in Israel’s first direct election for prime minister. Likud ran on a combined list with Gesher and Tzomet and won 32 Knesset seats.[2][14]

Netanyahu criticized the preceding government’s peace policies as insufficiently protective of Israeli security, but his coalition committed itself to continuing the peace process on the basis of security and reciprocity.[14] During his first term, he continued negotiations with the Palestinians, signed the Hebron and Wye agreements, accelerated privatization, and reduced the budget deficit.[1][2]

The party’s 1996 platform supported Palestinian self-government but opposed an independent Palestinian state and retained Israeli responsibility for defense and foreign affairs.[10] Netanyahu’s government was defeated in 1999, and Likud fell to 19 Knesset seats.[2]

Ariel Sharon returned Likud to power in February 2001 by defeating Ehud Barak by more than twenty percentage points after campaigning on security and Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem. He formed a broad unity government including Labor, Likud, religious parties, and smaller right-wing and secular factions.[14]

Likud won 38 Knesset seats in 2003.[2] Sharon later broke with the party’s traditional territorial position by implementing a disengagement plan that dismantled all Jewish communities in Gaza and several in northern Samaria. The policy met strong opposition inside Likud.[2]

In November 2005, Sharon announced that he was leaving Likud and established Kadima after concluding that he could not maintain a governing majority.[17] He suffered a severe stroke in early 2006 and did not return to public life.[18] Without Sharon and other senior figures, Likud fell to 12 seats in 2006, its lowest result to that point, and Netanyahu again became party leader.[2] Netanyahu had returned to politics in 2002 and served as finance minister from 2003.[12]

As finance minister, Netanyahu pursued reduced government spending, lower taxes, a shift from welfare benefits toward employment, renewed privatization, pension reform, and the abolition of monopolies. Likud’s official biography attributes to these policies a return to growth, including GDP growth of 4.2 percent in 2004 after contractions of about one percent in both 2001 and 2002.[12]

A 2022 party guide described Likud as economically liberal and associated it with lower income-tax rates, increased imports, frozen municipal tax rates, and efforts to reduce housing and consumer prices.[11] These positions continued the free-market strand present in Likud since its founding.[1]

Likud returned to power under Netanyahu in 2009, and his government was inaugurated on March 31.[9] He formed a third government after the January 2013 election and a fourth after the March 2015 election.[12] The 2013 joint Likud–Yisrael Beitenu slate won 31 seats.[1]

A Pew Research Center survey conducted from October 2014 to May 2015 found that Likud was the most common party affiliation among both Masortim and Hilonim. At that time, Jewish Home and Shas were members of the Likud-led coalition.[19]

Netanyahu’s continuous premiership ended in 2021 when a coalition led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid took office. He returned as prime minister in December 2022. A current Congressional Research Service report also states that four Likud faction seats are held by lawmakers originally elected with New Hope, which later merged with Likud.[20]

For historical context, a guide published before the 2022 election listed Likud with 28 Knesset seats at that time.[11] For the election scheduled for October 27, 2026, Likud submitted a 35-person slate headed by Netanyahu; nine positions went to his appointees, and four candidates were women.[21]

Likud’s Knesset representation traces its rise, decline, and recovery. It won 39 seats in 1973, 43 in 1977, and a party-record 48 in 1981. Its total then fell to 41 in 1984, 40 in 1988, and 32 in both 1992 and 1996.[2] The official 1977 result gave Likud 33.4 percent of valid votes, compared with 24.6 percent for the Alignment.[3]

Likud won 19 seats in 1999, recovered to 38 under Sharon in 2003, and fell to 12 following Sharon’s departure in 2006.[2] The joint Likud–Yisrael Beitenu slate won 31 seats in 2013.[1] These fluctuations accompanied the party’s transition from an opposition alliance into Israel’s principal right-wing governing party.

The Likud Central Committee decides party matters between conferences unless authority is reserved to another body. It may amend the constitution by majority vote, subject to conference ratification, and must approve agreements between Likud and other political organizations. It is scheduled to meet every six months and at least annually.[22]

The Secretariat, elected by the Central Committee, appoints the director general and operational department heads on the chairman’s recommendation and supervises their work. Ministers and Knesset members also serve by virtue of their positions.[22]

The Likud Court is the party’s supreme judicial organ. The legal adviser counsels party institutions and represents the movement before internal and external courts and government authorities.[22] Likud Youth is the official youth body and operates from Metzudat Zeev in Tel Aviv, with regional activity in central, northern, and southern Israel and in Judea and Samaria.[22]

Likud’s 1977 victory established that power could pass democratically from the long-governing Labor tradition to the Revisionist right.[1][3] The party’s strongest support that year came from Mizrahi voters in urban neighborhoods and development towns, helping create an important new electoral alignment.[8]

Likud prime ministers have directed several consequential episodes in Israeli history. Begin signed the peace agreement with Egypt and ordered the Osirak strike.[7] Shamir represented Israel at Madrid and ordered Operation Solomon.[16] Netanyahu’s separate periods in office have made him the central figure in the party’s recent history.[20]

Likud also brought the political lineage of Jabotinsky, Herut, and the Irgun into government after decades of Labor dominance.[1][23] Begin’s unrealized advocacy of presidential democracy, judicial review, separation of powers, and a written constitution remains part of the movement’s intellectual legacy.[15] Four Israeli prime ministers have led Likud: Begin, Shamir, Sharon, and Netanyahu.[1][4]

Likud’s interpretation of its Revisionist and Irgun heritage remains contested. In an essay published in Sh’ma, Likud-associated writer Yisrael Medad describes Herut’s claim that the Irgun helped force Britain from Mandatory Palestine as a founding myth. He argues that underground attacks served as catalysts, but explicitly states that the Irgun was not the sole factor and places its activity alongside immigration, settlement, social construction, and diplomacy.[23] His claim that later scholarship increasingly understood the armed campaign as a war of liberation is an attributed interpretation, not a scholarly consensus.[23]

Territorial policy has also generated internal disagreement. Likud’s original platform asserted sole Israeli sovereignty between the Mediterranean and Jordan River, while later governments returned Sinai, signed interim agreements with the Palestinians, and withdrew from Gaza.[2][10] Sharon’s disengagement produced especially strong opposition within Likud and contributed to his departure.[2]

Scholars have applied differing analytical frameworks to Likud’s rule. One study associates the post-1977 period with neoliberal and neocolonial political culture, while another analyzes the party’s 2009–2019 rule as exclusionary populism.[24][25] These are scholarly characterizations rather than neutral party self-descriptions.