A movement appears to be developing within Likud for the retirement of its veteran leader Menachem Beigin. Beigin, who heads the party’s Herut faction, has been asked, in several articles and pamphlets published recently, to step down so that others may become spokesmen for the non-Labor opposition.
These suggestions are emanating from personalities in the Liberal and Free Center factions of the Likud coalition. Prior to the establishment of Likud after the Yom Kippur War, the Liberals and Herut comprised the Gahal alignment which was in opposition to the Labor Alignment. Col. (res.) Yaacov Agassi, a member of the Free Center’s political committee, wrote this week that “with all due respect to Beigin, he has to vacate his place as leader of the opposition after failing eight times to bring the opposition to victory” in national elections. The Jerusalem branch of the Liberal Party published an article by Chaim Dinnerman who said that many do not regard Beigin as a political leader but rather as an idealist who cannot change his views to fit changing conditions.
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