Minister of Social Equality Gila Gamliel is well aware of the inconsistent attitudes held by Likud Party supporters. In 2003, she joined the “Likud Rebels,” a group of Knesset members that tried to block the disengagement from the Gaza Strip. That group, which at one point numbered 14 ministers and Knesset members, made the life of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon miserable, while it won the support of Likud Party members. At the time, the rebels were popular guests on television, appearing frequently in news interviews. Gamliel was then a young Knesset member, but even at 30, she was one of the most outspoken and aggressive members of the group. She became the darling of the settler movement and other powerful right-wing groups, which promised her that she would be a member of the Knesset and minister forever.
Gamliel assumed that her career was ready to take off, and that the party’s Central Committee would place her among the top 10 Likud candidates for a Knesset seat in the next election. But like so many other members of the rebellious faction, she got drunk with power and carried away by hubris. Then Sharon split the Likud, founded Kadima and left the rebels with a shattered party on the verge of collapse. Likud members held the rebels accountable for what they thought was their party’s imminent demise.
