![]() | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Prime ministerial election | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
|
General elections were held in Israel on 29 May 1996. For the first time, the prime minister was elected on a separate ballot from the remaining members of the Knesset.
The elections for Prime Minister resulted in a surprise victory for Benjamin Netanyahu, by a margin of 29,457 votes, less than 1% of the total number of votes cast, and much smaller than the number of spoiled votes. This came after the initial exit polls had predicted a Shimon Peres win, [1] spawning the phrase "went to sleep with Peres, woke up with Netanyahu". [2] Although Peres lost the prime ministerial vote – his fourth and last defeat as Labor leader – Labor emerged as the largest party in the Knesset, winning two more seats than the Likud–Gesher–Tzomet alliance.
On 13 September 1993, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) signed the Oslo Accords (a Declaration of Principles) [3] on the South Lawn of the White House. The principles established objectives relating to a transfer of authority from Israel to an interim Palestinian authority, as a prelude to a final treaty establishing a Palestinian state.
On 25 July 1994, Jordan and Israel signed the Washington Declaration, which formally ended the state of war that had existed between them since 1948 and on 26 October the Israel–Jordan peace treaty, witnessed by U.S. President Bill Clinton. [4] [5]
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat signed the Israeli–Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on 28 September 1995, in Washington. The agreement allowed the PLO leadership to relocate to the West Bank and Gaza Strip and granted autonomy to the Palestinians with talks to follow regarding final status. In return the Palestinians promised to abstain from use of terror and changed the Palestinian National Covenant, which had called for the expulsion of all Jews who migrated after 1917 and the elimination of Israel. [6]
On 4 November 1995, at the end of a rally in support of the Oslo agreements held in the center of Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated. The murderer, Yigal Amir, a right-wing Jewish radical, was a law student at the Bar-Ilan University who fanatically opposed the Prime Minister's peace initiative, particularly the signing of the Oslo Accords. The assassination of Rabin was a shock to the Israeli public. Approximately 80 heads of state attended Rabin's funeral in Jerusalem.
The table below lists the parliamentary factions represented in the 13th Knesset.
Name | Ideology | Symbol | Leader | 1992 result | Seats at 1995 dissolution | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Votes (%) | Seats | ||||||
Labor | Social democracy | אמת | Shimon Peres | 34.7% | 44 / 120 | 42 / 120 | |
Likud | National liberalism | מחל | Benjamin Netanyahu | 24.9% | 32 / 120 | 30 / 120 | |
Meretz | Social democracy Secularism | מרצ | Yossi Sarid | 9.6% | 12 / 120 | 12 / 120 | |
Tzomet | Nationalism Secularism | ץ | Rafael Eitan | 6.4% | 8 / 120 | 8 / 120 | |
Mafdal | Religious Zionism | ב | Zvulun Hammer | 5.0% | 6 / 120 | 6 / 120 | |
Shas | Religious conservatism Populism | שס | Aryeh Deri | 4.9% | 6 / 120 | 6 / 120 | |
UTJ | Religious conservatism | ג | Avraham Yosef Shapira | 3.3% | 4 / 120 | 4 / 120 | |
Hadash | Communism Socialism | ו | Tawfiq Ziad | 2.4% | 3 / 120 | 3 / 120 | |
Moledet | Ultranationalism | ט | Rehavam Ze'evi | 2.4% | 3 / 120 | 3 / 120 | |
Mada | Israeli Arab Interests | עם | Abdulwahab Darawshe | 1.6% | 2 / 120 | 2 / 120 | |
Third Way | Centrism | הד | Avigdor Kahalani | - | 0 / 120 | 2 / 120 | |
Gesher | Liberal conservatism Economic egalitarianism | - | David Levy | - | 0 / 120 | 2 / 120 | |
After taking over from Yitzhak Rabin following his assassination, Peres decided to call early elections in order to give the government a mandate to advance the peace process. [7]
During the campaign US president Bill Clinton attempted to influence the results of the election in favor of Peres saying that "I tried to do it in a way that didn't overtly involve me" because Peres was "more supportive of the peace process". [8]
Netanyahu's campaign was helped by Australian mining magnate Joseph Gutnick, who donated over $1 million to Likud.
Nevertheless, Labour and Peres were comfortably ahead in the polls early in 1996, holding a lead of 20%. However, the country was hit by a spate of suicide attacks by Hamas including the Jerusalem bus 18 massacres and other attacks in Ashkelon and the Dizengoff Center, which killed 59 people and severely damaged Peres' election chances. [9] Polls taken in mid-May showed Peres ahead by just 4-6%, [10] whilst two days before the election his lead was down to 2%. [11]
Several leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis, including Elazar Shach, called on their followers to vote for Netanyahu, [12] whilst Leah Rabin, Yitzhak's widow, called on Israelis to vote for Peres so that her husband's death "would not be in vain." [13] Netanyahu also warned that a Peres victory would lead to the division of Jerusalem in a final peace deal with the Palestinians.
Despite the national trauma which the assassination of Rabin caused, and although many blamed at the time the leaders of Israeli political right for the incitement that preceded the assassination, due to the series of suicide bombings carried out in Israel, and the failed military operation "Grapes of Wrath" conducted in Lebanon that caused many Lebanese civilian casualties, a significant change occurred in the position of the Israeli voters, which eventually resulted in 50.5% percent of voters supporting Netanyahu on election day. A significant number of Israeli Arabs boycotted the elections amidst rising Lebanese casualties, which became an advantage for Netanyahu as the vast majority of Arabs would have supported Peres but declined to vote. In addition, the intense campaign conducted by Netanyahu in contrast to Peres's campaign, as well as the support Netanyahu received at the last moment from the Chabad movement, titled the outcome in Netanyahu's favour.
Date | Organizer | Moderator | P Present I Invitee N Non-invitee | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Likud | Labor | Refs | ||||||||||||||
P Benjamin Netanyahu | P Shimon Peres | [14] |
Candidate | Party | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Benjamin Netanyahu | Likud | 1,501,023 | 50.50 | |
Shimon Peres | Labor Party | 1,471,566 | 49.50 | |
Total | 2,972,589 | 100.00 | ||
Valid votes | 2,972,589 | 95.24 | ||
Invalid/blank votes | 148,681 | 4.76 | ||
Total votes | 3,121,270 | 100.00 | ||
Registered voters/turnout | 3,933,250 | 79.36 | ||
Source: Nohlen et al. [15] |
Netanyahu's win was bolstered by large support from the ultra-orthodox community, 91.2% of whom voted for him. Peres on the other hand, gained overwhelming support from the country's Arab community, 97.5% of which backed him. [16]
![]() | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
Labor Party | 818,741 | 26.83 | 34 | −10 | |
Likud–Gesher–Tzomet | 767,401 | 25.14 | 32 | −8 | |
Shas | 259,796 | 8.51 | 10 | +4 | |
National Religious Party | 240,271 | 7.87 | 9 | +3 | |
Meretz | 226,275 | 7.41 | 9 | −3 | |
Yisrael BaAliyah | 174,994 | 5.73 | 7 | New | |
Hadash–Balad | 129,455 | 4.24 | 5 | +2 | |
United Torah Judaism | 98,657 | 3.23 | 4 | 0 | |
The Third Way | 96,474 | 3.16 | 4 | New | |
Ra'am–Mada | 89,514 | 2.93 | 4 | +2 | |
Moledet | 72,002 | 2.36 | 2 | −1 | |
Unity for the Defence of New Immigrants | 22,741 | 0.75 | 0 | New | |
Gil | 14,935 | 0.49 | 0 | New | |
Progressive Confederation | 13,983 | 0.46 | 0 | New | |
Telem Emuna | 12,737 | 0.42 | 0 | New | |
Settlement Party | 5,533 | 0.18 | 0 | New | |
Yamin Yisrael | 2,845 | 0.09 | 0 | New | |
Man's Rights in the Family Party | 2,338 | 0.08 | 0 | New | |
Ta'al | 2,087 | 0.07 | 0 | New | |
Da'am Workers Party | 1,351 | 0.04 | 0 | New | |
Total | 3,052,130 | 100.00 | 120 | 0 | |
Valid votes | 3,052,130 | 97.83 | |||
Invalid/blank votes | 67,702 | 2.17 | |||
Total votes | 3,119,832 | 100.00 | |||
Registered voters/turnout | 3,933,250 | 79.32 | |||
Source: CEC, Nohlen et al. [15] |
Despite winning the election for Prime Minister, Netanyahu's Likud (in an alliance with Gesher and Tzomet) lost the Knesset elections to Labour, winning only 32 seats compared to Labour's 34.
The objective of strengthening the position of Prime Minister by having separate elections was also a failure, as the election saw both major parties lose around ten seats compared to the 1992 election (Likud held only 24 of the 32 seats it won in its alliance) as many gave their Knesset votes to smaller parties; Labour received 818,570 votes to Peres' 1.47 million, (56%), whilst the Likud–Gesher–Tzomet alliance managed even less—767,178 compared to 1.50 million for Netanyahu (51%).
With only 32 seats, the Likud–Gesher–Tzomet alliance was, at the time, the smallest faction to lead a government in Israeli political history (the previous low had been Mapai's 40 seats in the 1955 election; since then, the 2006 elections saw Kadima emerge as the largest party with just 29 seats, and the 2009 election was won by Kadima with 28 seats, but Likud with 27 formed the government). This meant Netanyahu had to form a coalition with several smaller parties, including the National Religious Party, Yisrael BaAliyah the Third Way and the two ultra-orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism whose financial policies (generous child benefits and state funding for religious activities) were in direct opposition to his capitalistic outlook.
Netanyahu faced several issues; the left argued the peace process was advancing too slowly, but signing the Hebron Agreement and the Wye River Memorandum also caused him problems with the right-wing. Gesher broke away from the alliance with Likud and left the government coalition in January 1998. Netanyahu was forced to call early elections in 1999 due to problems passing the state budget.
During the Knesset term several new parties were created by defecting MKs. Three MKs left the Labor Party to establish One Nation; Two MKs from the Labor Party and four from Likud left to form the Centre Party (Eliezer Sandberg later broke away from the Centre Party and formed HaTzeirim before joining Shinui, a new party created by Avraham Poraz after he left Meretz); three other Likud MKs left to establish Herut – The National Movement; three members of Gesher and two members of Tzomet also left alliance. Two MKs left the National Religious Party to establish Tkuma; two MKs left Yisrael BaAliyah to establish Aliyah; and Moshe Peled broke away from Tzomet and formed Mekhora before joining Moledet.
In 1999 David Zucker left Meretz and Emanuel Zisman left The Third Way to sit as independents.
Prior to the 1999 elections Balad left its alliance with Hadash and United Torah Judaism split into Agudat Yisrael (three seats) and Degel HaTorah (one seat)
The prime minister of Israel is the head of government and chief executive of the State of Israel.
Shimon Peres was an Israeli politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the ninth president of Israel from 2007 to 2014. He was a member of twelve cabinets and represented five political parties in a political career spanning 70 years. Peres was elected to the Knesset in November 1959 and except for a three-month-long interregnum in early 2006, served as a member of the Knesset continuously until he was elected president in 2007. Serving in the Knesset for 48 years, Peres is the longest serving member in the Knesset's history. At the time of his retirement from politics in 2014, he was the world's oldest head of state and was considered the last link to Israel's founding generation.
Likud, officially known as Likud – National Liberal Movement, is a major right-wing political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon in an alliance with several right-wing parties. Likud's landslide 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. In addition, it was the first time in Israel that a right-wing party won the plurality of the votes. After ruling the country for most of the 1980s, the party lost the Knesset election in 1992. Likud's candidate Benjamin Netanyahu won the vote for Prime Minister in 1996 and was given the task of forming a government after the 1996 elections. Netanyahu's government fell apart after a vote of no confidence, which led to elections being called in 1999 and Likud losing power to the One Israel coalition led by Ehud Barak.
Tzomet is a small, right-wing political party in Israel.
David Levy is an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset between 1969 and 2006, as well as Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Immigrant Absorption, Minister of Housing and Construction and as a Minister without Portfolio. Although most of his time as a Knesset member was spent with Likud, he also led the breakaway Gesher faction, which formed part of Ehud Barak's Labor-led government between 1999 and 2001.
Amir Peretz is an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the Labor Party. A Knesset member almost continuously from 1988 to 2021, he has served as Minister of Defence, Minister of Economy, and Minister of Environmental Protection, as well as heading the Histadrut trade union federation between 1995 and 2006.
Legislative elections were held in Israel on 28 January 2003. The result was a resounding victory for Ariel Sharon's Likud.
Early general elections for both the Prime Minister and the Knesset were held in Israel on 17 May 1999 following a vote of no confidence in the government; the incumbent Likud Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, ran for re-election.
Kadima was a centrist and liberal political party in Israel. It was established on 24 November 2005 by moderates from Likud largely following the implementation of Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan in August 2005, and was soon joined by like-minded Labor politicians.
Gesher, officially the Gesher National Social Movement, was a political party in Israel between 1996 and 2003. It formed when David Levy led a split from the Israeli center-right party Likud. Gesher helped to form coalition governments led by both Likud and the left-wing Labor Party, but never gained significant power. The party was eventually disbanded as Levy returned to Likud. In 2019, David Levy's daughter, Orly Levy set up a similar party named Gesher, which advocates for many of the same policies supported by her father.
The Alignment was the name of two political alliances in Israel, both of which ended their existence by merging into the Israeli Labor Party.
Elections for the 13th Knesset were held in Israel on 23 June 1992. The election resulted in the formation of a Labor government, led by Yitzhak Rabin, helped by the failure of several small right wing parties to pass the electoral threshold. Voter turnout was 77.4%.
Elections for the 18th Knesset were held in Israel on 10 February 2009. These elections became necessary due to the resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as leader of the Kadima party, and the failure of his successor, Tzipi Livni, to form a coalition government. Had Olmert remained in office or had Livni formed a coalition government, the elections would have been scheduled for 2010 instead.
The twenty-seventh government of Israel was formed by Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud on 18 June 1996. Although his Likud-Gesher-Tzomet alliance won fewer seats than Labor, Netanyahu formed the government after winning the country's first ever direct election for Prime Minister, narrowly defeating incumbent Shimon Peres. This government was the first formed by an Israeli national born in the state after independence in 1948.
The Israeli Labor Party, commonly known as HaAvoda, is a social democratic and Labor Zionist political party in Israel. The party was established in 1968 by a merger of Mapai, Ahdut HaAvoda, and Rafi. Until 1977, all Israeli prime ministers were affiliated with the Labor movement. The current party leader is Merav Michaeli, who was elected in January 2021.
Politics in Israel are dominated by Zionist parties. They traditionally fall into three camps, the first two being the largest: Labor Zionism, revisionist Zionism, and religious Zionism. There are also several non-Zionist Orthodox religious parties and non-Zionist secular left-wing groups, as well as non-Zionist and anti-Zionist Israeli Arab parties.
The thirty-fifth government of Israel, or the Netanyahu–Gantz government, was the government of Israel which was sworn in on 17 May 2020 and dissolved on 13 June 2021.
Snap legislative elections were held in Israel on 17 September 2019 to elect the 120 members of the 22nd Knesset. Following the previous elections in April, incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a governing coalition for a second consecutive time. On 30 May, the Knesset voted to dissolve itself and trigger new elections, in order to prevent Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz from being appointed Prime Minister-designate. This election marked the first time the Knesset voted to dissolve itself before a government had been formed.
Blue and White was a centrist and liberal Zionist political alliance in Israel. It was established by the Israel Resilience Party, Yesh Atid and Telem to run in the April 2019 Knesset election, in hopes of defeating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Blue and White defines itself as a pluralistic alliance representing all citizens on the political and religious spectrums. The phrase "blue and white" refers to the colors of the Israeli flag, and is colloquially used to describe something as being typically Israeli.
Legislative elections were held in Israel on 2 March 2020 to elect members of the twenty-third Knesset. The result was initially a stalemate, which was resolved when Likud and Blue & White reached a coalition agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, the premiership would rotate between Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, with Gantz given the new position of Alternate Prime Minister until November 2021. These elections followed the continued political deadlock after the April and September 2019 Knesset elections.