Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party, formerly known as Herut, is a direct descendant of the radical Zionist Irgun and Lehi organisations. In fact, when Likud Leader (and future Prime Minister) Menachim Begin visited the USA in 1948, Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt and other prominent Jewish Americans wrote a letter to The New York Times condemning Begin’s party as ”closely akin to the Nazi and Fascist parties”.