Before Donald Trump, There Was Menachem Begin

So shocking was the electoral upset that Israeli television created a word for it: mahapakh. Derived from the root that means “revolution” or “turning upside down,” the word was fashioned because Menachem Begin’s 1977 election as prime minister was such a game-changer in Israeli politics that no existing word seemed to suffice. From independence in 1948 until 1977, Israel’s political left had ruled with an iron fist. Begin, a leader of the right widely seen as a “terrorist” because of his decisive role in the Jewish underground that ultimately forced the British to leave, had languished in the opposition -- often in the political desert -- for 29 years. Having lost eight consecutive times, Begin was expected to lose again and, at age 63, to exit the political stage.

Yet it did not play out that way. An angry electorate, especially Jews of North African origin, had run out of patience with Labor. They resented the privileged left, out of touch with the economic struggles of the Israeli “man on the street.” The left was hostile to religion in a country in which religion and ethnicity were the raison d’être. The more traditional North African Mizrachi Jews, as they are called, had had enough. So in 1977, they helped elect Begin -- the consummate Polish gentleman -- as prime minister.