Fifty years on: The realities of the October War - Opinion - Al-Ahram Weekly ahram.org.eg - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ahram.org.eg Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Jul. 14, 2021 1:57 AM
The electoral upheaval of 1977 crashed on the heads of the leaders of the Labor Party like a collapsed tower. They didn’t know how to digest the “unfairness” with which the public had treated them. They, who saw themselves as born to rule, felt they had been robbed, and had difficulty internalizing the fact that this was not only an electoral defeat but a genuine upheaval – the system collapsed and was replaced.
At the time I was elected to the Knesset for the first time – therefore I didn’t experience the sense of loss. Together with my friends, I devoted myself to the battle against Menahem Begin and his government. Our rival, the Gahal faction – a product of the merger between Begin’s Herut party and the Liberal Party headed by Simha Erlich – evinced a fighting spirit mixed with a desire for revenge.