The Labor Party established the state of Israel. Its leaders were the ''founding fathers'' of the young state, the central pillars of the Zionist movement. The Israeli right at that time was remote, negligible, marginal in the annals of Israel’s early years.
The Labor Party held the reins of power in the young state for the first 29 years of its existence, until the historic 1977 upset by late Prime Minister Menachem Begin. For three decades it had seemed that Israel belonged to the Labor Party, was registered as its property, was completely identified with it. Late Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, our George Washington, was its first leader. He was followed by prime ministers Moshe Sharet, Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. That was a generation of giants. A proud testament, alive and kicking, can still be found in the president’s residence in Jerusalem in the indefatigable figure of 90-year-old Shimon Peres.
Since the Begin upset and up until this very day, for 36 years, Labor only returned to power twice, for brief periods: Yitzhak Rabin in 1992 and former Prime Minister Ehud Barak in 1999 (whose coalition was deposed from power after less than two years). Shimon Peres got to serve as prime minister in the 1980s, in the famous rotation government (two years for him and two for Likud’s late Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir).
Other than that, 29 of the 36 years that have gone by since 1977 belong to the Israeli right: Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, Benjamin Netanyahu, Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert (who came from the ranks of the right but veered to the left) and, once again, Netanyahu. The right, by the way, never overthrew its own leaders. Begin ruled until he gave up and withdrew, Shamir ruled until he lost the elections to Rabin, Sharon held on to power until he collapsed with a stroke, Netanyahu led the Likud until he lost in the 1999 elections and withdrew, only to come back and head the party in 2009 and until today. The Likud respects its leaders, gives them breathing space, follows them (even while making their lives a misery), but doesn’t remove them from power. Likud leaders leave under their own steam.
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