one of the main political parties in Israel. It is a right wing party. 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