Likud Party

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 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 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