Herut

thumb|250px|Herut MKs Uri Zvi Greenberg, [[Esther Raziel Naor, and Menachem Begin, at the first meeting of the Knesset in Jerusalem]] Herut () was the major conservative nationalist political party in Israel from 1948 until its formal merger into Likud in 1988. It was an adherent of Revisionist Zionism.

==Early years== ===Foundation and platform=== Herut was founded by Menachem Begin on 15 June 1948 as a successor to the Revisionist Irgun, a militant group in Mandate Palestine. The new party was a challenge to the Hatzohar party established by Ze'ev Jabotinsky. Herut also established an eponymous newspaper, with many of its founding journalists defecting from Hatzohar's HaMashkif.