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Foreign Government | The Likud Party is Israel's major right-wing nationalist political party whose surprise May 1977 victory ended twenty-nine years of Labor dominance and brought to power a government under Menachem Begin even more committed to the Samson Option nuclear deterrent. | 1973 | Tel Aviv, Israel |
The Likud Party is a major right-wing political party in Israel. Its surprising victory in the May 1977 national elections ended twenty-nine years of Mapai Party and Labor Party domination of the political process in Israel. This brought to power a government that was even more committed than Labor to the Samson Option and the necessity of an Israeli nuclear arsenal. The Likud Party, led by Menachem Begin, represented a populist-nationalist view of a greater Israel with a right to permanent control of the West Bank.1
In 1984, neither Labor Party nor Likud achieved a majority in the national elections. A national unity coalition was negotiated, with Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Shamir sharing power: Peres would serve as prime minister and Shamir as foreign minister until September 1986, when they would trade jobs. The slush fund from arms sales financed the Likud Party and "black" operations.2