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Far-right politics in Israel

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Through Fascism, Italian fascism and Zionism

Mandatory Palestine (1920–1948)

Revisionist Zionism

Revisionist Zionism's ideological and cultural roots were influenced by Italian fascism. Ze'ev Jabotinsky, the founder of Revisionist Zionism, believed that Britain could no longer be trusted to advance Zionism, and that Fascist Italy, as a growing political challenger to Britain, was therefore an ally.

Betar

In 1923, Jabotinsky established the Revisionist Zionist youth movement Betar at a meeting in Riga, Latvia. 2 years later in 1925, the Revisionist "Hatzohar" Party was established, as a movement that existed separate from the main Zionist movement, the World Zionist Organization. The term "revisionist" referred to a revision of the World Zionist Organization's policies at the time. The Irgun, a Revisionist Zionist paramilitary organization, established by Avraham Tehomi in 1931, opposed British rule over Palestine, and was engaged in acts of terrorism against British officers and Arabs, in an attempt to expel them from the land and achieve Jewish sovereignty. The Irgun joined forces with Betar and Hatzohar in 1937.

Revisionist Maximalism

Revisionist Maximalism was a short-lived right-wing militant political ideology that was a part of the Brit HaBirionim faction of the Zionist Revisionist Movement created by Abba Ahimeir. Ahimeir was born in Russia in 1897 and migrated to Palestine at the age of fifteen. In 1928 Ahimeir joined Jabotinsky's Revisionist movement and became one of the movement's important activists.

In 1930, Brit HaBirionim under Ahimeir's leadership publicly declared their desire to form a fascist state. The Revisionist Maximalist movement borrowed principles from totalitarianism and fascism and it also drew inspiration from Józef Piłsudski's Poland and Benito Mussolini's Italy. Revisionist Maximalists strongly supported the Italian fascist regime of Benito Mussolini and wanted the creation of a Jewish state based on fascist principles.

The goal of the Maximalists was to "extract Revisionism from its liberal entrapment", because they wanted Ze'ev Jabotinsky's status to be elevated to the status of a dictator, and desired to forcibly assimilate the population of Palestine into Hebrew society. The Maximalists believed that authoritarianism and national solidarity was necessary to have the public collaborate with the government, and to create total unity in Palestine.

Irgun

The Irgun (Hebrew: ארגון), officially the National Military Organization in the Land of Israel, often abbreviated as Etzel (אצ״ל) or IZL, was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandatory Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the older and larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah.

The Irgun policy was based on Revisionist Zionism, founded by Ze'ev Jabotinsky. Two of the most infamous operations for which the Irgun were known were the bombing of the British administrative headquarters for Mandatory Palestine in Jerusalem on 22 July 1946 and the Deir Yassin massacre, carried out with Lehi on 9 April 1948.

The organization committed acts of terrorism against Palestinian Arabs, as well as against the British authorities, who were regarded as illegal occupiers. In particular the Irgun was described as a terrorist organization by the United Nations, British, and United States governments; in media such as The New York Times newspaper; as well as by the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, the 1946 Zionist Congress and the Jewish Agency. Hannah Arendt and Albert Einstein, in a letter to The New York Times in 1948, compared Irgun and its successor Herut party to "Nazi and Fascist parties" and described it as a "terrorist, right wing, chauvinist organization".

Following the establishment of the State of Israel during the 1948 Palestine war, the Irgun began to be absorbed into the newly created Israel Defense Forces. Conflict between the Irgun and the IDF escalated into the 1948 Altalena Affair, and the Irgun formally disbanded on 12 January 1949. The Irgun was a political predecessor to Israel's right-wing Herut ("Freedom") party, which led to today's Likud party. Likud has led or been part of most Israeli governments since 1977.

Lehi

The Lehi, also known as the Stern Gang, was a Revisionist Zionist militant group, founded by Avraham Stern in Mandatory Palestine in 1940. The group split from the Irgun, and sought a similar alliance with Fascist Italy. Lehi also believed that Nazi Germany was less of an enemy of the Jews than Britain was, and attempted to form an alliance with the Nazis, proposing a Jewish state based on "nationalist and totalitarian principles, and linked to the German Reich by an alliance". Avraham Stern, then commander of the Lehi, objected to the White Paper of 1939, British plans to restrict Jewish immigration and Jewish land purchase in Palestine, and proposed the creation of a binational Jewish-Arab Palestine. calling for an armed struggle against the British instead.

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