So what happened with Arik? Arik remained in the war, remained in the army?
[AS] No, I think he left the army. I think then he went into politics, didn't he?
Yes – he went into politics before the war;
he founded the Likud Party before the war.
[AS] Before the war? - before the war
Arik left the army because they didn't want to appoint him Chief of Staff.
Why didn't they want to appoint him Chief of General Staff?
Because all the generals hated him.
All of the generals without exception hated Sharon.
Sharon treated them like dirt.
He emphasised his superiority. He really was superior to them.
He was a much more important and powerful personality
with his own world view,
and he addressed all the generals with contempt
which he didn't bother to hide, and everyone hated him.
So when the time came for him to be Chief of Staff, there was a united front of all the generals
not to appoint him as Chief of Staff.
When Arik saw that he would not be Chief of Staff he retired,
he retired, became a citizen
and then he got the idea of establishing the Likud Party.
Arik said he founded Likud so that the right wing could take power.
The right had to establish a large party
and convince the public that it was able to take control,
after which he joined the Liberal Party.
Why the Liberal Party?
What did Ariel Sharon have in common with the Liberal Party?
Nothing, just that the Liberal Party didn't have a very prominent leader
and he thought he would be able to take them over easily,
being well known and an Israeli army general.
So he joined the Liberal Party
and as their leader he took the initiative to establish Likud.
It was Arik's idea as he explained to me in this room more than once.
The idea was that Likud and the Liberals alone could not take power -
only if the entire right wing united
would they have a chance to beat Mapai.
What was 'the entire right wing?
It was Herut and the Liberals who were already united a
s a faction in the Knesset in a joint faction known as Gahal.
But there were two small concurrent factions:
one was the Free Centre of Shmuel Tamir,
and the other was the National List, the remnants of those who had been loyal to Ben-Gurion,
the remnants of Rafi, those who didn't return to Mapai
before or after the war.
His plan was to unite all of these into one single party.
I said to him: 'Tell me, what is the logic in that?
Herut and the Liberals are already united.
These two tiny parties are just tails, and don't add anything'.
Then he said: 'You don't understand.
he public wants to see the entire right united;
that is the reason for the two small parties' –
who really were not worth much in electoral terms –
'they should be inside and we should create an image that everyone is united,
and together we will create something new.
Not just once again the leading parties, but something really new'. He was right.