War and peace within the Israeli Right (1970 - 1978): the path of a Hawkish party towards pragmatism

Abstract

ABSTRACT Right-wing ethno-nationalist parties are conceived of as upholders of rigid foreign policy positions. But in what instances might a hawkish party pursue a peace-promoting policy? The present article seeks to examine this question through the case study of the hawkish-nationalist Right in Israel during the 1970s, which eventually led its leader Menachem Begin to sign a peace agreement with Egypt, entailing a commitment to a full Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula and the evacuation of the Jewish settlements established in the area. The article examines the process which paradoxically led such right-wing hawkish leadership to signing—with determination and contrary to public expectations—an unprecedented political agreement in the history of the Israeli-Arab conflict. Contrary to the Israeli Right historiography which has, hitherto, focused on Menachem Begin’s persona and on his role in the political process—the article emphasizes those broad historical processes eclipsed by the limelight cast on its leader, underscoring the peace discourse evolving within the Israeli right political network, from party activists and supporters to parliamentary leadership. Rather than a personal initiative opposing his network’s policy—as considered in academic discourse—Begin’s peace project followed the exhortations of his political matrix.