The Yom Kippur Election

By early 1973 Gahal appeared to be stagnating. Like so many before him, Ezer Weizmann had attempted to change the situation in an amateurish manoeuvre to marginalise Begin. After a public chastisement by Begin, a chastened Weizmann left politics for a business career. Even so there was a growing opposition within Gahal, fuelled by the coming of age of a new generation. The commander of the Irgun at sixty was seen as intransigent and jaded. Gahal projected the image of a party which was closed to new ideas. There were even rumours that Weizmann would actually leave Herut and join the Free Centre. At the Free Centre conference, Shmuel Tamir called for a bloc of the Free Centre, the State List and the opposition within Herut. On the eve of the 1973 election, the precarious state of the party resembled the instability of early 1967. Yet Begin's luck held once more.

Ariel, Sharon had been passed over in the IDF and formally decided to join the Liberals. His presence indicated also that the Israeli Right was now beginning to secure the allegiance of a growing number of generals in the IDF – once the prerogative of the Labour party.

Unlike Weizmann, Sharon had found himself increasingly isolated within the military, with an accompanying reputation of disloyalty and insubordination. He had a supreme belief in his abilities and an infinite resilience to counter criticism from any quarter. This ability to never be diverted from a goal propelled him into the orbit of Menahem Begin. In addition, Sharon had drifted away from Labour. His idols in the 1950s were David Ben-Gurion and Moshe Dayan – and like them he had moved to the right.

Within hours of his departure from the army, Sharon attempted to forge a coalition of anti-Labour forces around Gahal. Unlike previous initiatives, it was a move ripe for its time. But Begin was torn between pragmatically expanding Gahal and emotionally listening to the deep concerns of his long-time supporters in Herut, who believed that it would simply lead to ideological compromises. Begin was also worried personally, since any move in the wrong direction could lead to a dilution of his authority and influence.