The Six-Day War

Menahem Begin was not only an astute politician with a long view of the game, but also someone who was remarkably lucky with regard to the turn of events. In the early months of 1967 it seemed that the Herut-Liberal alliance was on the verge of collapse. The sceptics within the Liberals were in the ascendency. Gahal had stagnated in the 1965 elections, and the Liberals seem to have gained little from the partnership with Herut. The public persona of Menahem Begin remained the same – a dogmatic expounder of extreme views for whom the Liberals provided respectable cover and access to the Israeli middle class. In labour folklore, Begin represented the nationalist anti-Christ.

On 15 May 1967 Egyptian troops advanced towards Sinai. Some eight days later President Nasser blocked the Straits of Tiran. While the IDF pushed for military action, Eshkol attempted to avert war by exploring all diplomatic channels. The lack of immediate action, however, was perceived in the public arena as dithering and a loss of the element of surprise. The uninspiring Eshkol did little to calm an increasingly anxious Israeli public. This situation permitted Mapai's political opponents to call for a national unity coalition to weather the coming storm.

Following the 1965 election, there had been exploratory discussions between Rafi's Shimon Peres and the Liberals within Gahal to examine areas of possible cooperation. Such a discourse bore fruit in May 1967 when Peres proposed a coalition based on Mapai, Rafi and Gahal. Ben-Gurion would return as prime minister in place of Levi Eshkol. Menahem Begin similarly desired national unity and understood that the entry of Gahal into government would not only boost the alliance's public standing but also create cohesion internally.

Despite the rejection of many past private initiatives to co-opt Herut into government, Begin on this occasion was suddenly ready to agree to Peres's proposal. The prospect of a national catastrophe could be offered as a rationale for reversing Herut's previous policy of standing alone as the central opposition. Some within Herut opposed Begin's expediency, but he smoothly played the role of an assiduous mediator between his political opponent, Levi Eshkol, and his old nemesis, David Ben-Gurion.