Menachem Begin, the 'Likud' and the Yom Kippur War: Opposition in War and the Sprouts of Peace

Abstract

This article seeks to outline, for the first time, the role of the Likud Party leadership, its shifting stance, and its response to the events that unfolded during and following the Yom-Kippur War. Headed by Menachem Begin, the party was established just prior to the Eighth Knesset elections and only a few weeks before the outbreak of the war. In such turbulent times, it became necessary for Begin and his leadership partners together with their representatives in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, to consolidate patterns of action based upon national and political considerations. During the first days of shock and containment battles, Begin and his partners enlisted a remarkably patriotic and statesmanship like support of governmental moves. However, in the course of the IDF’s recovery phase and its transition to the offensive, Likud leaders began to raise objections to the conduct of the war, and as negotiations to end the war were stepped up, open controversy developed between opposition leaders and cabinet members over terms for a ceasefire. With the end of the war and the resumption of the election campaign, heated arguments flared up among party members in consequence of their encounter with the longing for peace that swelled among large sectors of the Israeli public. The affair sheds light on the history of Right-Wing Zionism and the modus operandi of parliamentary opposition during a national security crisis. This article elucidates how a hawkish right-wing party was affected by the war in defining its positions and policies.