ABSTRACT
The Herut movement, created by Menahem Begin in 1948 and led by him until his retirement from Israeli politics in the wake of the Lebanon War debacle, has been plunged into a succession crisis since Begin’s withdrawal. Herut’s opposition to territorial concessions on the West Bank has proven--and will remain in the future--an insuperable obstacle to the “territorial compromise” avenue--provided Likud remains the potent political and national force it is today. Herut placed priority on the maintenance of the party’s ideological purity and the preservation of its hierarchical structure, rather than the conciliation of disgruntled elements. Herut was spared a crisis of ideology prior to its 1977 electoral triumph and the subsequent establishment of Israel’s first Herut-led government. The secular erosion of Herut ideology was checked in the aftermath of the June War. The accession of Israel’s first Herut-led government generated a major intra-party debate over foreign and settlement policy.
