The impact of political upheaval on a party’s ideational position: the Mafdal and the 1977 upheaval

The article examines the impact of the 1977 political upheaval in Israel on the political direction of the Mafdal, the National Religious Party. The main argument is that, contrary to the widely held view, the party did not adopt more extreme national and social positions following the upheaval. As matter of fact, it was during the premiership of Prime Minister Menachem Begin that the Mafdal positioned itself as a moderate political party on foreign and defence issues. This was demonstrated in its stance in the face of several political and national events: its support of the peace agreement with Egypt, opposition to the bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor and reservations regarding deployment of the army during the Lebanon War. As a vital partner in Begin’s government after the upheaval, the Mafdal underwent a process of ‘co-optation’, one of the most powerful strategies for containing and subsuming opposing forces in contending with disagreement.