ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the Likud under Netanyahu by focusing on several main topics: (a) Likud under Begin, Shamir, Sharon and Netanyahu; (b) Likud’s ideology relative to alternative Zionist visions and especially the evolution of Israeli “Kulturkampf” (cultural war) over the fundamental identity of the state; (c) the evolution of the political philosophy of the Zionist and the Israeli Right from Jabotinsky’s “Revisionism” to Begin’s “Neo-Revisionism” to Netanyahu’s readjustment of both to his perception of Israel’s challenges in the 21st century, especially his adoption of an Israeli version of American neoconservatism, with emphasis on free market economy, expansionist and militarized foreign policy, and patriotism as tools of internal ideological control; (d) Likud’s foreign policy positions, and especially Netanyahu’s effort to minimally sustain the status quo while pursuing in fact creeping annexation, relying heavily on the support of the United States; and (e) the conclusion emphasizes that Netanyahu’s Likud has succeeded in establishing cultural hegemony within Israel’s Jewish majority so that its fundamental beliefs have emerged as unchallengeable, yet this triumph has enormous and possibly negative consequences in terms of future relationships between Israelis and Palestinians, relationships between Israel and the outside world and the nature of the Jewish republic itself.
