Click here for Full Issue of EIR Volume 4, Number 22, May 31, 1977 ���i)�__________________________________________ ______� � I.� ...�� ",.\.)� Inside Israelis Likud Party I The Likud Party that will likely head Israel's next reliably reported to be a "superdove"; it is Ehrlich who government is an unstable coalition of at least three dis­ is internally leading the fight to have Moshe Dayan not tinct political factions - the Herut and Liberal parties become Israel's next Foreign Minister. and the La'am group - and an amalgam of four socio­ According to intelligence sources, there exist as well logical layers; the lower-class Oriental Jews who com­ within the Likud individuals with long-standing connec­ prise a sizable chunk of Israel's population; middle-level tions to East Germany, who operate in Israel according businessmen, shopkeepers, and professionals; rightist to understandings between the East Germans and generals with varying degrees of connections to Rocke­ British intelligence networks both within and outside the feller and Rothschild (mainly French-related) intelli­ East Bloc itself. These networks came into existence as gence· networks; and a group of top scientists and the historical result of a process by whi�h old West military-connected technicians. German Communist Party networks operated in Pales­ Correspondingly, the Likud is a mixed bag of foreign tine through joint arrangement of British and Soviet policy orientations and international affiliations. Likud officials. The same sources report that the recent shifts and Herut leader, Menachem Begin, is an unyielding in IsraeL are being utilized as a means of expediting nationalist fanatic who had strong 1940s connections with desired shifts in V.S.-East German relations toward the the Rockefeller family, in their destabilization opera­ granting of most-favored nation trade status to East tions against British interests, but who has since built up Germany, status useful to the transfer of technology to a machine in the tradition of Chicago's late Mayor Daley the East Bloc. in Israel's largest cities and newer development towns. The factors which make the Likud cohere - outside of General Ezer Weizman, likely to assume the Likud­ the perception of a handful of sophisticated intelligence Herut mantle of power if Begin leaves the scene, is an operatives that the Likud could be a useful stalking-horse ultra-nationalist-expansionist with substantial ties to the to get the reins of state power - are twofold. V.S., British and French military and aerospace circles For one, all factions in the Likud fundamentally agree through his years-long experience in building the Israeli that the socialist-corporativist measures of the Histadrut Air Force into a powerful machine. labor confederation which have managed Israel for By contrast, Chairman of the Liberal Party and almost three decades must be rolled back and replaced member of the Likud Executive Arieh Dulzin, a possible with a severe reduction of the state sector and decisive candidate for Foreign Minister, is a foreign policy dove austerity measures. The degree of austerity to be im­ with primary connections in Mexico, where he lived for posed is likely a matter of disagreement; the Herut in­ almost forty years. Similarly, Liberal Party National terests tied into aerospace-research and development Secretariat President Simcha Ehrlich, number two on and those responsive to the lower-class Oriental com­ · the Likud's Knesset (Israeli Parliament) slate,! is munities are less inclined to provoke class war than are many in the Liberal Party afflicted with a shopkeeper­ accountant mentality. It was, for example, Ehrlich and Begin Headquartered In Liberal Knesset-man Gideon Patt who arranged for fascist economist Milton Friedman to become an official Rockefeller Command Post economic advisor to Israel's new government. Second, the Begin-run machine has been a continued center of gravity for Israeli right-wing coalition politics How malleable a Menachem Begin-led govern­ for over a decade. Numerous Liberal and non-party'· ment will be to Rockefeller Mideast regional Israeli politicians have seen in the Begin-run "mafioso" scenarios is a question now being actively posed in operation a means of getting closer to state power than intelligence circles. Aside from analyzing the ob­ available alternative means for existing smaller parties vious "fanatic" profile of Begin, observers should in Israel opposed to the Labour Party. Begin, in fact, has note two aspects of Begin's life: survived at least three major challenges mounted to his *What exactly were the circumstances of Begin's rule within the Likud and its predecessor Gahal bloc. It is leaving a Polish prison camp in the early 1940s an open-ended question what the Likud would look like - under joint British and Russian supervision - if anything - if Begin were to be shunted aside, whether turning up in Palestine to become the Irgun com­ because of ill health or because of a conscious move by mand head in 1943-44? A top-level Rockefeller in­ Rockefeller and Rothschild operatives intent on bringing telligence source claims that Begin spent much of into effective power in Israel the hard-core military 1943 in North Africa, being tutored on the subject of intelligence crowd around Dayan, Peres and such changing Mideast geopolitics by Robert Murphy backers of Yadin's Democratic Movement for Change as and David Rockefeller. Aharon Yariv and Meir Amit. *Begin's 1969 role as head of the Israel-France Association, a grouping totally controlled by Baron The Progression from Herut to Gaha/ to Likud Edmond de Rothschild. The Likud as a political formation is less than four MIDDLE EAST 5 © 1977 EIR News Service Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission strictly prohibited. years old, having been formed on the eve of the October with the General Zionist wing of the newly formed 1973 War by superhawk General Ariel Sharon. Sharon's Liberal Party to form a new party, Gahal, on the basis of organizing welded together the Gahal Party (composed a common alliance against the Labour Party's itself of Herut and Liberal parties), and three small "socialism." The Progressive Party wing of the group lets, the Greater Israel Movement, the Free Centre Liberals, composed of sophisticated intellectuals and and the State List, the latter a grouping put together by cosmopolitan counterinsurgents such as the editors of ex-Premier David Ben-Gurion. Israel's leading Ha'aretz newspaper, split from the Herut itself was formed soon after the State of Israel Liberals to form the Independent Liberal Party. was proclaimed. With Ben-Gurion, Israel's first premier, By this time in the mid-1960s, Israeli politics was going rapidly subsuming relevant military institutions under through upheavals that have never been competently his direct command, Begin disbanded his Irgun militia. explicated, but decidedly have the appearance of a In coordination with such leading Irgun men as Samuel major Rockefeller-Rothschild move to muscle in on the Merlin, Peter Bergson, Shmuel Tamir, Chaim Landau, Israeli line to put into effect the re-alignments necessary and others, Begin put together the leadership of Herut. for launching the "Greater Israel" that emerged after This leadership moved quickly to neutralize an alter­ the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Notably, Ben-Gurion had in 1963 native political leadership force deriving from the dropped out of the leadership of the ruling Mapai Party, Revisionist Party, the political arm of the Irgun, and and an observer from the U.S. Massachusetts Institute of took the reins of party power. With the exception of Technology stated that "Ben-Gurion's departure from Landau, this has since dispersed, and even Landau, the helm of Mapai has cleared the atmosphere, and intensely faithful to Begin, did not run in the recent Herut's acceptance by. other parties as a responsible Knesset elections. spokesman will now be more easily achieved. It is quite This factor, however, has not led to the lessening of likely that the new Gahal coalition party would not have Begin's control over the party machine, a control which been possible had Ben-Gurion retained his full political to this day is tenacious. power." From 1955 to 1965, Begin and others in Herut sought to When Begin suddenly resigned from Herut's leader­ end the party's isolation andjmage as an extremist ship in mid-1966, the same author exclaimed that "fac­ sectlet. In April, 1965, an arrangement was consolidated tional battles within Herut achieved public visibility for likud Knesset Members: A Dossier The prevailing tendencies in the Likud that are and Yosef Rom (no. 28) , who earlier this year the basis for a strong centrifugal phenomenon are publicly advocated using joint Egypt-Israel nuclear evident in the diverse backgrounds of a development projects as a means of forwarding representative sample of the 43 Likud members Arab-Israeli peace discissions. just voted into the Knesset. The Liberal wing of Likud is predominantly The number three man in the Herut faction, after characterised by economic management types of Begin and Weizman, Itzahak Shamir, is a former the cost-efficiency accountant tendency. Ehrlich top-level Shin Beth agent who, during the 1940s, had and Patt, numbers 1 and 3 in the Liberal part of the been one of the triumvirate leading the Stern Gang. Likud slate, were responsible for Milton Friedman Shamir has been described by one knowledgeable being appointed to manage Israel's economic af­ Rothschild-connected source as "the best assassin fairs. Dulzin, while not on the official slate, yet the State of Israel has ever had." considered to be one of the top power-brokers Herut man Amnon Linn, number 27 on the Likud among the Liberals, has authored books titled "The slate, is also known for his ideological fervor.