Gesher (political party)
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Gesher
גֶּשֶׁר |
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|---|---|
| Leader | David Levy |
| Founded | 11 March 1996 |
| Dissolved | 2007 |
| Split from | Likud |
| Merged into | Likud |
| Political position | Center-right |
| Alliances | Likud-Gesher-Tzomet (1996–1999) One Israel (1999–2001) |
| Most MKs | 5 (1996–1999, as part of Likud) |
| Fewest MKs | 2 (1996, 2003–2003) |
Gesher (Hebrew: גֶּשֶׁר, lit. Bridge), officially Gesher - National Social Movement (Hebrew: גשר - תנועה חברתית לאומית, Gesher - Teno'a Hevratit Le'umit) was a political party in Israel between 1996 and 2003.
Gesher was set up by David Levy on 11 March 1996 as a breakaway from the Likud party during the thirteenth Knesset, after he lost the Likud leadership elections to Binyamin Netanyahu.
Levy refused to accept Netanyahu as the new Likud chairman. The situation in the Likud at the time was stormy. Netanyahu's management tactics were angering many Likud supporters, while his right-wing rhetoric gained the confidence of Sharon, Benny Begin, and the hard-line party members. Levy knew that if he was cowed by his suave nemesis his supporters would either join Netanyahu's camp in order to oppose the new Oslo Accords, or go the opposite direction and back a more socialist candidate. He also knew that Netanyahu would not be willing to give him one of the top four ministries should the Likud return to power after his disastrous term as foreign minister.
Levy mistakenly believed he could draw a mass defection from the Likud of parliament members, and such a disaster would lead senior party members in the Central Committee into a panic that would topple Netanyahu. What instead occurred was that only David Magen, a rather obscure Moroccan politician and former mayor of Kiryat Gat who served as Minister of Economics and Planning in the last Shamir government broke with the Likud. Though many of Gesher's members were derided by the press as lackeys of Levy, Magen would prove to be rather independent, and later broke with Levy to join the Centre Party (then known as Israel in the Centre) in 1998.
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