In the 1961 elections the party won 17 seats, the same number as Herut, making it the joint-second largest after David Ben-Gurion's Mapai.

Early in 1964, spontaneous appeals arose among centrists and rightists of all factions for a joint parliamentary bloc to undermine Mapai's dominance.

[6] Seven mostly former Progressive Party MKs led by Pinchas Rosen broke away in protest to form the Independent Liberals on 16 March 1965.

By the end of the Knesset session Gahal had 27 seats, only seven less than Mapai's 34 (reduced from 42 after 8 MKs, led by Ben-Gurion, had broken away to form Rafi).

The party was moderate in foreign policy; at the time it supported giving up of parts of the West Bank to Jordan in a peace treaty.