Is this the end of the liberal Likud?
The punishment of Benny Begin for voting against the settlement Regularization bill shows how extremist the Likud Party has become.
Like any profound process, the Likud Party's transformation from a liberal national party to an extreme right-wing party that contemptuously tramples the rule of law was not a sudden event. The change the Likud has undergone was completed Dec. 5 in the Knesset, when Benny Begin emerged as the only party member to vote against a bill that would recognize unauthorized outposts. The measure passed the preliminary reading. In response to Begin’s small rebellion, David Bitan, the coalition chairman and Likud member, suspended Begin from the Knesset’s constitution committee for three weeks.
The move against Begin, the son of Menachem Begin, the Likud’s most admired prime minister, sparked a media storm, while not one member of his party stood by his side. Almost all of the Likud WhatsApp groups, with the exception of one or two, sided with Bitan, who explained in an interview to the Knesset channel, “[Benny Begin] is a real symbol for the Likud, but a symbol also has to fall in line. He can’t be held higher than the people. He can’t do whatever he wants.”
Former Justice Minister Dan Meridor, a veteran member of Likud and friend of Begin, expressed the feelings of a group of moderate and pragmatic Likud activists who are forcefully being pushed from their political home and are overcome by sorrow and frustration as a result. In an interview with Army Radio, Meridor said, “Where have we come to? When Benny Begin, who represents the historical Likud, is punished for this? They legislate a shameful law. A law of theft, which stains the whole settlement project, and no member of Knesset with a conscious should agree with it. Benny Begin is punished for not agreeing to legislate unjust laws. The shame is on the government.”
One of the only Likud activists to stand beside Begin was Gil Shmueli, the chairman of the Herut loyalist circle in the Likud, who wrote in a WhatsApp group, “The removal of Benny Begin from the constitution committee was a crossing of all the red lines in a national, democratic and free party, and is a direct continuation of the destruction of the classic, liberal, official and good Likud that we miss so much.”
