Likudnik
A “Likudnik” is a member of Israel’s Likud political party (founded in 1973). “Likudnik” has been cited in English print since at least 1981.
American (and especially New York) politicians often have well-expressed views on Israel, and an American “Likudnik” is someone who strongly supports the state of Israel. In the 2000s, during the Iraq war, “Likudnik” became an epithet similar to “neocon” and “right-wing extremist.”
Wikipedia: Likud
Likud (Hebrew: הַלִּכּוּד HaLikud, lit. The Consolidation) is the major center-right political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin in an alliance with several right-wing and liberal parties. Likud’s victory in the 1977 elections was a major turning point in the country’s political history, marking the first time the left had lost power. However, after ruling the country for most of the 1980s, the party lost the Knesset election in 1992. Nevertheless, Likud’s candidate Benjamin Netanyahu did win the vote for Prime Minister in 1996 and was given the task to form a government after the 2009 elections. After a convincing win in the 2003 elections, Likud saw a major split in 2005, when Likud leader Ariel Sharon left the party to form the new Kadima party. This resulted in Likud slumping to fourth place in 2006 elections. Following the 2009 elections, the party appears to have mostly recovered from its loss, and now leads the Israeli government under Prime Minister Netanyahu.
A member of the party is often called a Likudnik (Hebrew: לִכּוּדְנִיק).
Google Books
Financial Mail
1981
Pg. 664, col. 2:
Instead. with Begin as Premier and Yitzhak Shamir continuing as Foreign Minister , the Cabinet leadership remains firmly in the hands of hardline Likudniks.
Google Books
Israel in the Begin era
By Robert Owen Freedman
New York, NY: Praeger
1982
Pg. 48:
The La’am (“For the Nation,” in Hebrew) faction had only eight members out of 45 Likudniks in the 1977 Knesset, and it has only four out of 48 today.
31 August 1983, Chicago (IL) Tribune, “As ‘king’s’ reign ends, fight for throne begins” by Timothy J. McNulty, pg. 11:
Reluctantly, however, he agreed to hold off his official resignation until the spoils of a new coalition—the Cabinet posts and special-interest legislation—could be divided among his “Likudniks” and not handed over to the opposition Labor Party.
Google Books
16 July 1984, New York magazine, “The Other Election: Israel makes its choice” by Michael Kramer, pg. 31, col. 1:
“It’s the $64-million question,” says Dan Meridor, a Likudnik who was cabinet secretary under Begin.
3 March 1985, Boston (MA) Globe, “Mubarak proposal sparks Israeli dissension; Likud leader sees ‘trap’ in call for negotiations” by Curtis Wilkie, pg. 8:
Although Labor and Likud are ostensibly united on the question of PLO representation, some hard-line Likudniks were warning that the PLO could be brought in ...
OCLC WorldCat record
SWAMP MAN: The Likudnik culture whence Ylgal Amir crept
Author: Moshe Halbertal
Publisher: New York : The Republic Pub. Co.,
Edition/Format: Article : English
Publication: The new republic. (November 27, 1995): 16
Database: ArticleFirst
Antiwar.com
April 12, 2002
Behind the Headlines
By Justin Raimondo
AMERICAN LIKUDNIKS
They’re on the warpath – against George W. Bush
The Israelis were bound to turn against America, sooner or later: and now that George W. Bush is standing up to Ariel Sharon, and demanding he stop the massacre in the West Bank, their bile is fully unleashed. As members of an Israeli tank brigade go on the offensive against Palestinian teenagers, women, and defenseless old men, they find time to diss the President of the United States: ...
Slate Magazine
The Likudnik Factor
Plus: Don’t rush Pinch either.
By Mickey Kaus|Updated Friday, Feb. 14, 2003, at 4:39 AM ET
Don’t Rush Me, II: “The Likudniks are really in charge now.”WaPo‘s Robert Kaiser has tried to raise an issue that Slate‘s Michael Kinsley attempted to raise a few months ago, namely the influence, among the administration’s hawks, of what Kaiser carefully calls people with “loyalty to strong positions in support of Israel and Likud.” Kinsley wrote that “the role of Israel in the thinking of [President Bush] is the “proverbial elephant in the room: Everybody sees it, no one mentions it.”
The Volokh Conspiracy
David Bernstein, November 19, 2004 at 8:28am
Likudnik, Part II
Kevin Drum writes:
ANTI-SEMITISM….This is getting tiresome. It has long been a staple on the right that most criticism of Israel is really just thinly veiled anti-Semitism. Then after 9/11 we began hearing that criticism of neocons was just thinly veiled anti-Semitism. Now David Bernstein comes along to tell us that use of the term “Likudnik” is just thinly veiled anti-Semitism.
Here’s what I actually wrote:
Folks on the Left have been throwing around the term “Likudnik” to refer to any non-left-wing Jew who differs with them on foreign policy, even when the relevant issue has nothing directly to do with Israel, Iraq being exhibit A…. Not surprisingly, the phrase “Likudnik” is gradually becoming a general anti-Semitic term for Jews whose opinions one doesn’t like. Case in point, an email from one Matthew Hess…
To give Kevin the benefit of the doubt, I’ll assume that this is somehow unclear, so I will explain: “throwing around the term” implies carelessness, and I don’t say anything about this carelessness being anti-Semitism, nor to I ever state that “use of the term ‘Likudnik’ is just thinly veiled anti-Semitism.” However, I do argue that because folks are throwing around the term “Likudnik” carelessly, it’s “not surprising” that the term is “gradually becoming a general anti-Semitic term.”
OCLC WorldCat record
Jerusalem Dispatch: True Colors Israeli leftists are incredulously celebrating Ariel Sharon’s “transformation” to potential peace-maker. They shouldn’t be so surprised: Sharon was never a true Likudnik
Author: M B Oren
Edition/Format: Article : English
Publication: NEW REPUBLIC, 232, no. 4700, (February 14, 2005): 10-11
Database: British Library Serials
Other Databases: ArticleFirst
The Volokh Conspiracy
David Bernstein, November 6, 2008 at 4:21pm
A Real “Likudnik”
[NOTE: Given that we probably have a lot of new visitors to this blog, I thought I’d add this preface linking to some of my other posts about tendentious, dishonest uses of the word Likudnik, a pet peeve of mine. Start with this one. FWIW, I sometimes get called a “Likudnik,” even though I have no ties to Likud, would not vote for Likud if I were an Israeli, and have never expressed support for Likud here or anywhere else.]
Haaretz Daily Newspaper
Published 23:25 20.09.11
Latest update 23:25 20.09.11
Texas Governor Rick Perry: Like a Likudnik
In his New York rally, Republican presidential front-runner adopts rhetoric of Israel’s radical right lock, stock and barrel.
By Chemi Shalev
Except for the fact that the proceedings were held in English, an Israeli attending Texas Governor Rick Perry’s “press conference” at the W Hotel in midtown Manhattan Tuesday morning might be excused for imagining that he was in the middle of a pep rally for one of Israel’s right-wing politicians, and a hard-liner at that.
Flanked by two of the Knesset’s most hard-core peace process pooh-poohers, the Likud’s Danny Danon and Shas’ Nissim Ze’ev, and enthusiastically encouraged by an organized band of Orthodox Jewish cheerleaders, Perry adopted the rhetoric of Israel’s radical right lock, stock and barrel, repeating the word “appeasement” in all its inflections, in order to hammer home a not-too-subtle association between President Obama’s Middle East peace policies in 2011 and Neville Chamberlain Munich capitulations in 1938.
Centre for Research on Globalization
The “Official End” of the Bush-Cheney Disaster in Iraq?
by Prof. Rodrigue Tremblay
Global Research, December 20, 2011
(...)
In that, it was following the blueprint that neocons and pro-Israel “Likudniks” under the leadership of Paul Wolfowitz (Bush’s future deputy secretary of defense) and Lewis “Scooter” Libby (Cheney’s future chief of staff) had drafted in 2000 under the auspices of “The Project for the New American Century”, in a report entitled “Rebuilding America’s Defenses, Strategy: Forces and Resources For a New Century”.