Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu.

Party Chairman: Benjamin Netanyahu

Established: 1973

Current Knesset seats: 27

Official website: www.likud.org.il

Official Knesset profile: Likud

Likud rejects the establishment of a Palestinian state. Party chairman Benjamin Netanyahu has outlined a plan for an "economic peace" that would leave Palestinians with little more than a series of disconnected Bantustans under Israeli control.

Like Kadima and Labor, Likud insists on completing the separation wall and ultimately maintaining Israeli control over Jerusalem and the main settlement blocs.

Analysts also expect a Netanyahu-led government to support continued Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank, a policy that may increase friction with the new U.S. administration.


Key Party Members


Benjamin Netanyahu. Official Knesset Profile. Current Chairman of Likud, he was Prime Minister of Israel from 1996-1999, and is currently the official Head of the Opposition in the Knesset. Netanyahu has previously advocated mass expulsions of Palestinians from the Occupied Territories. Many Palestinians fear that a potential return to power for Netanyahu in 2009 could have devastating effects on the already languishing peace process. Read more.


Moshe Ya'alon. Official Knesset Profile. A life-long military figure, he only began his political career last year after deciding to run for Likud in the 2009 elections. Ya'alon has been accused of war crimes for his involvement in the 1996 massacre of 106 Lebanese civilians in Qana, as well as his role in the 2002 assassination of a suspected Hamas commander in Gaza City that killed seven members of a neighboring family and 15 others. Read more.


Efraim Eitam. Official Knesset Profile. A resident of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Eitam recently joined Likud, after formerly serving for the religious-Zionist National Union. Eitam said in March 2002 that Arab citizens of Israel "resemble a cancerous growth." He recently described the Oslo peace process as "morally and militarily wrong" and has advocated for Israel's permanent control of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Read more.


Silvan Shalom. Official Knesset Profile. A former Foreign Minister and Finance Minister, he is currently a member of Knesset. On April 16, 2000, when asked what he would recommend to then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Shalom said, "He must say unambiguously that he is against the formation of a Palestinian state." Read more.

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