When Menachem Begin First Shook the Foundations of Hegemony – The 1955 Elections

Nir Topper
Mar 4
3 min read

The elections for the Third Knesset, held in 1955, marked another stage in Israel's transition from an era of "heroic innocence" to a sobering confrontation with questions of political morality, national responsibility, and the social rifts that had been sidelined during the years of the struggle for independence.

At the center of the stage stood the clash between the diplomatic moderation of Moshe Sharett and the security activism of David Ben-Gurion. The "Old Man’s" retirement to Sde Boker in 1953 was a values-driven move intended to revive the pioneering spirit, but it also allowed him to influence power centers from afar. This situation created a "two-headed government," where fateful security decisions were sometimes made behind Sharett's back. This tension was not merely a matter of style, but a fundamental debate over Israel's survival strategy in the face of external threats and the international arena.

The security reality was steeped in blood and anxiety, with daily infiltrations by "Fedayeen" squads from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank (Judea and Samaria). These squads carried out acts of murder and sabotage in frontier settlements like Nahal Oz, Moshav Patish, and the Jerusalem Corridor and Sharon regions, which found themselves on the front lines of a daily struggle. In response, the IDF adopted a policy of reprisal operations, which became the heart of a stormy public debate. While Sharett feared international isolation, a public suffering from a breach in personal security tended toward the activist approach of Ben-Gurion and Moshe Dayan.

Two dramatic affairs shook the nation to its core and cracked public trust in the establishment: "The Lavon Affair" (also known as the "Unfortunate Business") and the Kastner Trial. The failure of an Israeli spy ring in Egypt exposed a secret sabotage mission ("Operation Susannah") intended to prevent the British from evacuating the Suez Canal. The plan involved sabotaging British and American targets in Egypt to make it appear as though the acts were committed by Egyptian organizations. The network was exposed in July 1954 after a bomb ignited prematurely in the pocket of one of its members at the entrance to a cinema in Alexandria, leading to the resignation of Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon.

Simultaneously, the earth-shattering verdict in the Kastner Trial shocked the public. The court ruled that Rudolf Kastner had "sold his soul to the devil," accusing him of collaborating with the Nazis in Hungary and abandoning the Jewish masses to extermination in exchange for saving the "Train of the Prominent." Kastner, a member of the ruling Mapai party and a senior official, became a symbol of the state's leadership. The verdict put the national conscience of the Pre-State (Yishuv) leadership under piercing public judgment, eventually leading to the collapse of the coalition and the dissolution of the Knesset.

The election results in July 1955 were a political earthquake. Mapai lost about ten percent of its power, while the Herut movement, led by Menachem Begin, nearly doubled its strength, becoming the second-largest party. This achievement marked the beginning of the "National Camp's" growth as a viable governing alternative. The connection between the disgruntled public in the periphery and Begin's uncompromising rhetoric created a new political alliance that shook the foundations of the centralized government, proving that the hegemony was not immune to public criticism.

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The dramatic shifts in the election results necessitated a reorganization of the political map. In November 1955, the Seventh Government was formed, with David Ben-Gurion officially returning as Prime Minister and Minister of Defense. Unlike previous governments based on partnership with the liberal center, Mapai turned leftward this time, forming a broad coalition with "Ahdut HaAvoda" and Mapam, alongside the religious and progressive parties. This composition gave the government a distinct "activist-socialist" character, designed to address the security and social crises exposed during the election campaign.

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Image 1: Prime Minister Moshe Sharett voting in Jerusalem. Source: Wikipedia, Third Knesset Elections.