Disillusionment Of A Likudnik

Standing on the rooftop of the dorms at Tel Aviv University that summer night in June, I felt like someone had just knocked the wind out of me when the radio broadcast the results of the 1992 Israeli elections. After spending a month at Metzudat Ze'ev (Likud Party headquarters) volunteering alongside veterans from the Irgun Zvai Leumi, the news that Yitzhak Shamir had lost was especially devastating.

Besides being the party of Vladimir Jabotinsky, I also used to view the Likud Party as the party of the Irgun Zvai Leumi and Lehi. It was a party that was carrying on a proud tradition. The Irgun veterans that I worked with during the 1992 elections cautioned me what would happen if the Labor Party was victorious. At the time, I thought these older men were being overly dramatic, however time has certainly proven them correct in every regard. Territorial concessions, terorrism, and more concessions...all as they predicted.

Who knew that fifteen years later that the Likud Party would become virtually indestinquishable from the Labor Party? Who could have forcast that the Irgun veterans would one day look at the Likud Party in disgrace?

I have been thoroughly disillusioned with Israeli politics since the Likud Party initiated last summer's expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif and the northern Shomron. In retrospect, Likud governments have done more damage to Eretz Israel than their Labor counterparts. While a Labor government signed the Oslo Accords, Likud governments actually ceded the Sinai peninsula, parts of Hevron, and, the Gaza Strip. The Labor Party always talks about doing all these things, however it is the Likud Party that carries them out.

Will the the 2006 elections send the final death blow to the Likud Party? I sure hope so. Ultimately the Likud has betrayed itself.