Likud’s rise to power and the ‘Democracy in Danger’ fearmongering campaign: rhetoric vs. facts

The 1977 elections in Israel marked the first time since the country’s establishment in 1948 for a right-wing government to be elected. Immediately after this sea change, a ‘Democracy in Danger’ fearmongering discourse was instituted by representatives of academic, cultural, political and media elites. In fact, as this article shows, Likud’s ascendance served as a formative event of democratic transformation in the deepest sense of the word, strengthening and deepening Israel’s democratic identity that had hitherto been limited at most.