{"id":168528,"date":"2026-07-28T03:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T03:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/168528\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T03:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T03:12:11","slug":"likud-must-protect-menachem-begins-democratic-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/168528\/","title":{"rendered":"Likud must protect Menachem Begin\u2019s democratic legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Menachem Begin must be turning in his grave.<\/p>\n

The Likud party<\/a>, which traces its roots to Begin\u2019s Herut movement, was built on a conviction that democracy depends upon the freedom to disagree. As Begin himself declared, \u201cWe are convinced \u2013 as we have witnessed throughout the world \u2013 that without an opposition, there can be no democracy; without it, the essence of human liberty is in danger.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first right-wing prime minister in Israel\u2019s history was referring to the Knesset<\/a> opposition, yet the principle applies just as readily within political parties. Democracy begins long before election day. It begins with the willingness of a movement to tolerate debate, criticism, and competing ideas without demanding unquestioning loyalty from those within its ranks.<\/p>\n

Veteran Likud MK David Bitan on Sunday leveled extraordinary accusations against his own leadership in an interview with KAN TV where he said that the Prime Minister\u2019s Office had contacted ministers and MKs asking them to record videos in support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a>\u2019s proposals ahead of an internal party vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prime minister really wanted appointments rather than [internal] elections,\u201d Bitan stated. \u201cBut following the petitions we filed and the public pressure we created, he has essentially agreed to primaries.<\/p>\n

\"PrimePrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara cast their vote during the elections for the Likud Central Committee, at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, November 25, 2025 (credit: CHAIM GOLDBERG\/FLASH90)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a democratic party. Our foundation is democratic\u2026 The Prime Minister\u2019s Office is asking for videos \u2013 videos supporting his proposals. The prime minister appoints them as ministers; the prime minister can dismiss them from those positions. The prime minister has influence over many party members in the primaries, so people are under pressure. They\u2019re afraid in this situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Likud party has lost the value of strong internal debate<\/p>\n

If senior elected officials believe they are expected to demonstrate loyalty to the party leader before an internal democratic vote, something has changed inside a movement once renowned for robust internal debate.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Likud MK Dan Illouz warned against any attempt to weaken the party\u2019s primary system. Speaking to The Jerusalem Post\u2019s Keshet Neev, he acknowledged reports that Netanyahu sought greater influence over the composition of the party list, but cautioned against abandoning the process altogether.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that would be very bad for the Likud,\u201d Illouz said. \u201cWe\u2019re very proud to be the only democratic party right now in the Knesset. We\u2019re very proud about this title, and I don\u2019t think that we\u2019d want to let it go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those comments now read rather differently.<\/p>\n

Likud\u2019s own internal court was eventually put in a position to order that primaries proceed according to the party\u2019s democratic framework, after attempts to alter the process. It was not the High Court of Justice doing this, or the opposition or outside campaigners defending Likud\u2019s internal democracy. It was Likud itself.<\/p>\n

Bitan\u2019s allegations also recall claims made last week by MK Sharren Haskel in a sworn affidavit during last month\u2019s state comptroller vote. Haskel alleged that members of the New Hope-United Right faction were instructed to film themselves voting for Michael Rabello and show the footage to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as proof that they had voted as required. All of this implies a political culture in which loyalty is increasingly expected to be proven rather than simply given.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu remains Likud’s dominant political figure<\/p>\n

None of this is to deny Netanyahu\u2019s standing within Likud. He remains, by a considerable margin, the party\u2019s dominant political figure. Nor is there anything improper about a party leader campaigning for his preferred proposals. The concern arises when disagreement is met not with debate but with pressure, and when loyalty is measured by visible displays of obedience rather than confidence in the strength of one\u2019s argument.<\/p>\n

Begin named his movement Herut, \u201dFreedom.\u201d The freedom to speak, freedom to disagree, and freedom to challenge authority without being branded disloyal. It is an uncomfortable irony that, nearly half a century after Begin<\/a> entered the Prime Minister\u2019s Office, some within the movement he founded now appear to have so little freedom to dissent from its leader.<\/p>\n

If the Likud continues to mistake conformity for unity, it may soon find that voters deliver the lesson its own founder understood all along. Come October, the movement descended from the freedom movement could find itself with fewer MKs in the Knesset \u2013 and perhaps, in a final irony, sitting in the very opposition that Begin so passionately defended as indispensable to democracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Menachem Begin must be turning in his grave. The Likud party, which traces its roots to Begin\u2019s Herut…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[16469],"tags":[244,1102,1065,6847,18016,20210,71624],"class_list":["post-168528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-democracy","tag-elections","tag-israeli-politics","tag-knesset","tag-likud","tag-menachem-begin"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116995420776460644","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}