n.
Coalition of Israeli right-wing political parties.
It was created by the 1973 merger of the Herut Party (1948) and the Liberal Party (1961), which itself was a merger of the General Zionists and the Progressives. From the late 1970s Likud alternated in power with the Israel Labour Party . The party generally was skeptical of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, opposing the formation of a Palestinian state and supporting continued Jewish settlement of the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Party leaders have included Menachem Begin , Yitzhak Shamir , and Ariel Sharon . See also Arab-Israeli wars ; Irgun Zvai Leumi; Vladimir Jabotinsky .