Likud

The Hebrew root ל-כ-ד (l-k-d) is ancient, appearing in the Hebrew Bible with meanings ranging from capturing enemies to binding things together. The noun likud, meaning consolidation or unification, emerged from this root through standard Hebrew morphology. When Ariel Sharon and Menachem Begin united several right-of-center parties into a single electoral bloc in September 1973, they chose a name that promised exactly what the fragmented Israeli right had lacked: cohesion.

The founding parties included Herut — Begin's nationalist movement descended from the Irgun — the Liberal Party, and several smaller factions. Begin had led Herut since 1948 without ever holding national office, consistently losing to the Labor Alignment that had governed Israel since independence. The Yom Kippur War began just weeks after Likud's founding in October 1973, and the shock of that conflict eroded Labor's reputation for security competence in ways that took four years to show at the ballot box.

In the 1977 elections, Likud won 43 seats and Begin became prime minister in what Israelis call HaMahapach, the upheaval. For the first time, a party associated with the revisionist Zionist tradition of Zeev Jabotinsky held power. Begin went on to sign the 1979 Camp David Accords with Egypt's Anwar Sadat, an outcome that surprised many who had expected the hawkish coalition to reject any territorial compromise. The Nobel Peace Prize followed for both leaders.

Since 1977, Likud and Labor have alternated in power, with Likud increasingly dominant from the 1990s onward under Benjamin Netanyahu, who first became prime minister in 1996. Netanyahu's tenure — interrupted twice but spanning more years than any other Israeli leader — has made Likud synonymous with his particular brand of security-first politics. The word likud, consolidation, now describes an institution more durable than any of the original parties that agreed to consolidate.