Shlomo Avineri
LETTER FROM ISRAEL
For many observers the Israeli elections of 1977, which
brought Menachem Begin to power, seemed like an aberration.
Labor's defeat, after thirty years of continuous control of Israel's
political life, appeared to be no more than an unfortunate combi–
nation of a number of unrelated elements: Rabin's mediocre quali–
ties of leadership, the discovery of corruption among some members
of Labor's elite, the internal squabbles between Rabin and Peres,
Rabin's own illegal dollar account, the emergence of Yigael Yadin's
attractive reform-oriented Democratic Movement for Change - all
these contributed to the loss of Labor's plurality. Without any great
increase in its own vote, the Likud thus became Israel's largest party
and Begin, so it seemed, inherited the Premiership not so much due
to his party's own strength as to Labor's weakness. The fact that
Begin himself was incapacitated during most of the election
campaign because of a heart attack contributed to this general feel–
ing that he might not be more than an accidental Prime Minister.
The election results of 1981 have dispelled these illusions almost
completely. Just like the 1977 elections, the 1981 campaign had its
own paradoxes: the Labor Alignment managed to bounce back,
from thirty-two to forty-seven members of Knesseth, but this
remarkable recovery was not strong enough to unseat Begin. More–
over, Begin participated vigorously throughout the whole campaign
and his oratorical skills as a populist tribune became more than
evident. The Likud proved itself to be immensely popular among
many of the so-called 'Oriental' Jewish voters - the 'ethnic' vote
made up of immigrants from Muslim countries and their descen–
dants: Moroccan, Iraqui, Yemenite Jews tended to vote for Likud
rather than Labor despite their generally lower socio-economic
status. Younger people also tended to vote more for Likud than for
Labor, and very strong anti-Labor groundswells were visible and
audible during much of the campaign, which became vicious and
occasionally even violent in its last stages.
Obviously, some fundamental changes are occurring in Israeli
politics, and it is the aim of these comments to put them in some sort
