The Israeli Liberal Party (), also known as the Liberal Party in Israel (, ''Miflaga Libralit BeYisrael'') was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

in Israel and one of the forerunners of the modern-day

Likud Likud (, ), officially known as Likud – National Liberal Movement (), is a major Right-wing politics, right-wing, political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon in an alliance with several right-wing par ...

. The party was created by a 1961 merger between the centrist Progressive Party and the

General Zionists The General Zionists () were a centrist Zionist movement and a political party in Israel. The General Zionists supported the leadership of Chaim Weizmann and their views were largely colored by central European culture. The party was considered ...

, forming a right-leaning, middle class-based party. The Progressives soon seceded to form the Independent Liberals in 1964.

History

The Liberal Party had its roots in the

, centrists who sought to unify all Zionists without regard to

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

, revisionist, or

religious Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...

leanings, and stressed industrial development and private enterprise. The group split into two wings in 1935: the majority, General Zionists A, led by

Chaim Weizman Chaim Azriel Weizmann ( ; 27 November 1874 – 9 November 1952) was a Russian-born Israeli statesman, biochemist, and Zionist leader who served as president of the Zionist Organization and later as the first president of Israel. He was e ...

, were on the left; General Zionists B were on the right. Both were made up of industrialists, merchants, landlords, white-collar professionals, and intellectuals. They merged again in 1946 to form the General Zionist party, but split again in 1948 when group A helped form the Progressive Party. The Liberal Party was formed on 8 May 1961, towards the end of the fourth Knesset when the two parties merged again, together holding 14

Knesset The Knesset ( , ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Israel. The Knesset passes all laws, elects the President of Israel, president and Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister, approves the Cabinet of Israel, cabinet, and supe ...

seats. Early elections were called for 1961 after the General Zionists and

Herut Herut () was the major conservative nationalist political party in Israel from 1948 until its formal merger into Likud in 1988. It was an adherent of Revisionist Zionism. Some of their policies were compared to those of the Nazi party. Early y ...

brought a

motion of no-confidence In physics, motion is when an object changes its position with respect to a reference point in a given time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed, and frame of reference to an obse ...

in the government over the

Lavon Affair The Lavon affair was a failed Israeli covert operation, codenamed Operation Susannah, conducted in Egypt in the summer of 1954. As part of a false flag operation, a group of Egyptian Jews were recruited by Israeli military intelligence to pla ...

. In the 1961 elections the party won 17 seats, the same number as

, making it the joint-second largest after

David Ben-Gurion David Ben-Gurion ( ; ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary List of national founders, national founder and first Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister of the State of Israel. As head of the Jewish Agency ...

Mapai Mapai (, an abbreviation for , ''Mifleget Poalei Eretz Yisrael'', ) was a Labor Zionist and democratic socialist political party in Israel, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger into the Israeli Labor Party in January ...

. Early in 1964, spontaneous appeals arose among centrists and rightists of all factions for a joint parliamentary bloc to undermine Mapai's dominance. In 1965 the party held discussions with

Menachem Begin Menachem Begin ( ''Menaḥem Begin'', ; (Polish documents, 1931–1937); ; 16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992) was an Israeli politician, founder of both Herut and Likud and the prime minister of Israel. Before the creation of the state of Isra ...

's Herut party over a possible merger. A majority of the Liberals and Herut quickly approved the scheme, but some MKs, representing almost all the Progressive wing, declined to join the new alliance as they found Herut to be too militant. Seven mostly former Progressive Party MKs led by

Pinchas Rosen Pinchas Rosen (; 1 May 1887 – 3 May 1978) was an Israeli statesman, and the country's first Minister of Justice, serving three times during 1948–51, 1952–56, and 1956–61. He was also leader of the Independent Liberals and three times tur ...

broke away in protest to form the Independent Liberals on 16 March 1965. On 25 May 1965, the Liberal Party merged with Herut to form

Gahal Gahal (, an acronym for ''Gush Herut–Liberalim'' (Hebrew: ), ''lit.'' ''Freedom–Liberals Bloc'') was the main right-leaning political alliance in Israel, ranging from the centre-right to right-wing, from its founding in 1965 until the establi ...

, a Hebrew acronym for Herut–Liberals Bloc (Hebrew: גוש חרות–ליברלים, ''Gush Herut–Libralim''), though the two parties continued to function as independent factions within the alliance. The formation of Gahal was a major turning point in Israeli politics, as it marked the first serious challenge to Mapai's hegemony. By the end of the Knesset session Gahal had 27 seats, only seven less than Mapai's 34 (reduced from 42 after 8 MKs, led by Ben-Gurion, had broken away to form Rafi). Prior to the

1973 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1973. Africa * 1973 Cameroonian parliamentary election * 1973 Equatorial Guinean legislative election * 1973 Ethiopian general election * 1973 Gabonese general election * 1973 Republic of the Congo con ...

, Gahal merged with a number of small right-wing parties including the

Free Centre The Free Centre (, ''HaMerkaz HaHofshi'') was a political party in Israel. It is one of the forerunners of the modern-day Likud. History The party was created on 29 March 1967 during the sixth Knesset when Shmuel Tamir led a breakaway of three ...

(a breakaway from Gahal), the

National List The National List (, ''Reshima Mamlakhtit''), sometimes translated as the State List, was a political party in Israel. Despite being founded by David Ben-Gurion, one of the fathers of the Israeli left, the party is one of the ancestors of the mo ...

and the non-parliamentary

Movement for Greater Israel The Movement for Greater Israel (, ''HaTnu'a Lema'an Eretz Yisrael HaSheleima''), also known as the Land of Israel Movement, was a political organisation in Israel during the 1960s and 1970s which subscribed to an ideology of Greater Israel. The ...

to form the Likud bloc. The new party made history when it removed the left wing from power by winning the

1977 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1977. Africa * 1977 Afars and Issas Constituent Assembly election * 1977 Algerian legislative election * 1977 Gambian general election * 1976–1977 Guinea-Bissau legislative election * 1977 Malagasy ...

. The Liberal Party finally ceased to exist in 1988 when Likud became a unitary party. In 1986, prominent Liberal Party leaders (none of whom were in the Knesset) who opposed joining the Likud established a party called the Liberal Center, accusing the present leadership of abandoning the party's traditional policies in order to accommodate Herut. The party was moderate in foreign policy; at the time it supported giving up of parts of the West Bank to Jordan in a peace treaty. It had a right-of-center approach to economic and social policies. In 1988, along with the Independent Liberals, it joined

Shinui Shinui () was a Zionist, secular, and anti-clerical free market Liberalism worldwide, liberal party and political movement in Israel. The party twice became the third-largest in the Knesset, but both occasions were followed by a split and collaps ...

, forming the Center–Shinui Movement. The new bloc supported land for peace with the Arabs and the protection of individual rights, and opposed religious coercion. It was openly against joining a government led by Likud and the religious parties. It also differed from Labor in its support for a free-market economy. Today, a remnant of the Liberal Party, the Israeli Liberal Group, remains an active member of

Liberal International Liberal International (LI) is a worldwide organization of liberalism, liberal political parties. The political international was founded in Oxford in 1947 and has become the pre-eminent network for liberal and progressive democratic parties aim ...

, which it joined in 1990.

Elected MKs in the Fifth Knesset

– Progressive –

Leaders

Election results

References

External links

Party history
Knesset website {{Israeli political parties Political parties established in 1961 Defunct political parties in Israel Defunct liberal political parties Liberal parties in Israel Zionist political parties in Israel Political parties disestablished in 1988 General Zionism 1961 establishments in Israel 1988 disestablishments in Israel