I S R A EL A F T ER B E G IN SUNY Series in Israeli Studies Russell Stone, Editor I S R A EL A F T E R B E G IN EDITED BY GREGORY S. MAHLER STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS Published by State University of New York Press, Albany ©1990 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address State University of New York Press, State University Plaza, Albany, N.Y., 12246 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Israel after Begin I edited by Gregory S. Mahler. p. cm. — (SUNY series in Israeli studies) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-7914-0367-X. - ISBN 0-7914-0368-8 (pbk.) 1. Israel—Politics and government—Congresses. 2. Israel- -Foreign relations—Congresses. 3. Political Parties—Israel- -Congresses. 4. Begin, Menachem, 1913- -Congresses. I. Mahler, Gregory S., 1950- . II. Series. JQ1825.P3A176 1990 956.9405 4 י—dc20 89-28079 CIP 10 987654321 Contents 1. Israel After Begin Gregory S. Mahler 1 Part One: Beginism, the Rule of Law, and the Radical Right in Israel 2. The Legacy of Begin and Beginism for the Israeli Political System Ilan Peleg 19 3. Illegalism in Israeli Political Culture: Theoretical and Historical Footnotes to the Pollard Affair and the Shin Beth Cover Up Ehud Sprinzak 51 4. Tehiya as a Permanent Nationalist Phenomenon Aaron D. Rosenbaum 71 Part Two: Israel's National Security and Foreign Policy 5. Israeli National Security in the 1980s: The Crisis of Overload Avner Yaniv 93 6. Israeli-Soviet Relations Under the National Unity Government Robert O. Freedman 111 7. Israel in the Middle East Laurie Mylroie 137 8. Israel and Morocco: The Political Calculus of a ״Moderate״ Arab State Mark A. Tessler 155 v Contents 9. The Guarded Relationship Between Israel and Egypt Ann M. Lesch 187 10. The Not-so-Silent Partnership: Emerging Trends in American Jewish-Israeli Relationships George E. Gruen 209 Part Three: The Domestic Political Environment 11. The Party's Just Begun: Herut Activists in Power and After Begin Alan S. Zuckerman, Hanna Herzog, and Michal Shamir 235 12. Better Late than Never: Democratization in the Labor Party Myron J. Aronoff 257 13. Beyond the Begin Revolution: Recent Developments in Israel's Religious Parties Gary S. Schiff 273 14. Israel's Economic Policy in the Post-Begin Era Yakir Plessner 291 Notes 307 Contributors 345 Index 349 C H A P T ER O NE Israel After Begin Gregory S. Mahler Fully a month after the elections for Israel's Twelfth Knesset (parliament) in November 1988, Israel's two major political parties, Likud and Labor, were still engaged in a battle over which was more capable of forming a coalition government. Likud had received the first post-election "mandate" from the president to attempt to create a coalition, but by the end of three weeks was still unable to put together a parliamentary majority without the assistance of Labor. At the same time, both Likud and Labor were loudly and firmly articulating their intentions of avoiding another "national unity" government of the type in which they had both served during the preceding four years. Even- tually, despite their protestations to the contrary, Likud and Labor created precisely the kind of national unity coalition that they had promised their followers in the election campaign that they would never form again. That this could have been the case at all would have shocked someone who had not observed the politics of the preceding political decade. Prior to 1977, the idea that Likud could be even a part of a government coalition was — with the exception of a brief National Unity Government in the Seventh Knesset — almost unbelievable. The Mapai/Alignment/Labor block had so thoroughly dominated Israeli politics for Israel's first thirty years that many perceived the Likud as an "unrealistic" party, capable of serving in the Opposition, or perhaps as part of a broad National Unity Government, but clearly not capable of creating a coalition government on its own. The 1977 election of the Ninth Knesset changed the political landscape, however. The final words of a 1981 national study of political behavior in the Knesset included the observation that 1 Israeli Borders Today Map from Israel: Government and Politics in a Maturing State by Gregory Mahler, copyright c 1990 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., reprinted by permission of the publisher. Israel After Begin 3 Regardless of how or why Likud came into power [in 1977], it seems clear that forming the Government has given the Likud a certain respectability that many Israelis felt it lacked prior to 1977, feeling that the Likud was only an opposition party. Whether a Likud or a Labor alignment ends up winning a plurality in the 1981 election, it seems clear that another thirty-year period of Labor rule is extremely unlikely . . . Many in Israel, who in the past would never have supported the Likud because it was perceived as an extremist party, perpetually in the opposition, have now decided that the Likud is a reasonable alternative to the Labor alignment, and having proven its ability to govern — regardless of policy outcomes — the Likud has become a much more viable alter- native to Labor hegemony than it was before it had a chance to demonstrate its ability.1 Time has proven this prediction to be an accurate one. Since the 1977 election, Likud has either served as the sole ״major partner/׳ or shared the role as major partner, in all Israeli coalition governments, and Labor has served as the secondary, sometimes ״almost equal״ party, but has proven unable to regain its position as the dominant party in the political system, which it enjoyed for virtually all of Israel's early years. The man credited for changing the relationship between the political parties in Israel was Menachem Begin. Historians suggest that he was more than just a Resistance fighter and a party leader; he was the agent of some fundamental changes in the nature of the Israeli polity. Among the many facets of Israeli politics affected by Begin might be included the nature and degree of competition offered by the Likud in elections, the role of Sephardic Jews in the polity, the pattern of Israeli settlements on the West Bank, Israel's relations with her Arab neighbors, a peace treaty with Egypt, and other structures equally significant in the Israeli political landscape. Begin׳s influence can be seen in sociocultural variables, in party structures, in electoral compe- tition, in foreign policy, and in economics. Many of these changes are described in the essays in this volume. In fact, scholars in recent years have begun to refer to a ״Begin era" in Israeli political history. In this framework, Menachem Begin is seen as a ״watershed" in Israeli politics, and it is possible to speak of a ״pre-Begin era," a Begin era, and a ״post-Begin era" when we seek to study both Israeli domestic policy and Israeli foreign policy. Scholars contributing to this volume focus on a relatively new theme in the study of Israeli politics: ״What is the nature of Israel in this post- Begin era?"