2025-07-29 11:35 <br/> Tags: #party #israel #organization ![[image 1.png|127x139]] # Herut Party (1948-1988) - Herut was an Israeli right wing [[Revisionist Zionism]] political party. Herut is the precursor party to [[Likud]]. - The party was formed in June 1948 by [[Irgun and Lehi Zionist Paramilitary Organizations|Irgun]] leader [[Menachem Begin]]. - The party was founded while Begin and the Irgun were involved in the [[Altalena Affair]]. - The founding ideology of Herut revolved around Israeli territorial maximalism, known as [[Greater Israel]]. - The party was against the ceasefire signed during the [[1948 Arab Israeli War]]. They wished to keep fighting, take the West Bank, take the Gaza Strip, and eventually take the land east of the Jordan River where the country Jordan exists - Herut did not recognize Jordan. ![[image-1 1.png|218x350]] * *1956 Herut membership card. The expanded borders of Israel depicted are commonly known as [[Greater Israel]]. * - Herut was formed in soft opposition to Hatzohar, the late [[Ze'ev Jabotinsky]]'s original revisionist party. - After the first Israeli Knesset elections in 1949, Hatzohar merged into Herut. - Herut was the bitter political enemy of [[David Ben-Gurion]]. - The feud began in the 1920s/30s when [[Ze'ev Jabotinsky]] representing the Revisionist Zionist right and [[David Ben-Gurion]] representing the Labor Zionist left fought over [[World Zionist Organization]] elections. - The Zionist political left-right feud continued after the death of Jabotinsky in the form of [[Menachem Begin]] and [[Yitzhak Shamir]] representing the Revisionists against [[David Ben-Gurion]]'s left. - Herut members were ostracized from the Israeli political system by the near supreme power held by Ben-Gurion during Israel's early years. - Herut struggled to gain power in the late 40s and 50s with internal power struggles and party defections destabilizing the party's effectiveness. - Throughout the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s [[Menachem Begin]] remained the undisputed leader of the party in spite of the numerous power struggles. - In 1965, Herut joined with a number of more moderate center-right parties to form the [[Gahal]]. - The Gahal alliance of many Israeli right wing parties helped to give Begin and Herut some form of legitimacy they had always lacked. - The [[1967 Six Day War]] was a major boon to both Herut and Begin. - Herut joined the Israeli unity government as soon as the war began and benefited greatly from its newfound legitimacy. The party also gained popularity due to the nature of the war. - The Six Days War resulted in Israeli land expansion and the genesis of Israeli settler activity in its newly occupied territories. - Both of these results played into Herut's core ideology which had been largely suppressed until the 67' war. - In 1969, [[Yitzhak Shamir]] joined Herut. Shamir was the former [[Irgun and Lehi Zionist Paramilitary Organizations|Lehi]] leader, leader of Mossad assassination unit [[Mifratz]], and future PM. - In 1973 [[Gahal]] merged with a number of right wing parties to form [[Likud]]. *Gahal was the product of a 1965 merger (mentioned above), and the successor party to Herut.* - Within Likud, Herut and Begin maintained dominance. - Likud fully absorbed Herut in 1988 and has been carrying the torch of the Israeli right and Revisionist right ever since. Likud's 1977 victory marked the end of the left wing labor-socialist monopoly on Israeli politics. #### Herut and American Jewry - Like the other political parties in Israel, Herut relied on funds from the Jewish diaspora, largely in the United States. - [[Hillel Kook]]'s Irgun network in the US the [[Bergson Group]] pivoted its activities to support Herut after the latter's its inception in 1948. - The [[Betar]] youth group chapters in the United States represented Herut's revisionist ideology within American Jewry. - The New York based nonprofit [[Americans For a Safe Israel (AFSI)]] was formed in 1970 to push the Herut party line on settlements and the occupied territories. - Herut's US network would funnel money to the party along with hosting Begin and other Herut leaders when they visited the US. - Herut also certainly kept the support of Jewish US mobsters who had been arming and funding the Irgun, Micky Cohen and Meyer Lansky for example. *It is well known that the Jewish diaspora particularly in the US disproportionately favors right wing Revisionist Zionism. A party like Herut and a leader like Begin had more natural Jewish support in the US than in Israel. When Begin was facing internal party struggles in the early 50s, he networked in the US to maintain his power.* #### References - Wikipedia. s.v. “Gahal.” _Wikipedia_. Accessed July 29, 2025. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gahal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gahal). - Wikipedia. s.v. “Menachem Begin.” _Wikipedia_. Accessed July 29, 2025. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menachem_Begin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menachem_Begin). - Wikipedia, s.v. “Herut,” _Wikipedia_, accessed July 29, 2025, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herut](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herut). - Jewish Virtual Library. “Herut Movement.” _Jewish Virtual Library_. Accessed July 29, 2025. [https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/herut-movement](https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/herut-movement).