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Liberalism in Israel has played a role since the country's founding. [1]
Several liberal political parties have claimed substantial popular support, mainly proved by having representation in the Knesset. While liberalism is usually suspicious of nationalism, Jewish liberals in Israel generally support some form of Zionism. They tend to be more receptive towards a Two-state solution.
Conservative liberals (see General Zionists, Liberal Party) were founding members of the Likud, the country's main conservative party, while social liberals (see Progressive Party, Independent Liberals) were integrated in the social-democratic Labor Party. Later on, a long-time liberal, anti-clerical and pro-free market party was Shinui, a member of the Liberal International. More recently, Kadima was a broad liberal and centrist party, integrating politicians from the left and the right. Current liberal (and liberal Zionist) parties are Yesh Atid and the Resilience Party (Blue and White). New Hope is a national-liberal party. By contrast, Balad draws upon liberal values in its aim to eliminate discrimination against Arab citizens and redefine Israel as a state for all its citizens rather than a "Jewish and democratic state", but it is a secular party rather than a liberal one.
School | Party | Leaders | |
---|---|---|---|
Classical liberalism | General Zionists (1922–1961) | ||
Social liberalism | Progressive Party (1948–1961) | ||
Kulanu (2014–2019) | |||
Gesher (2019–2021) | |||
Israel Resilience Party (2019–present) | |||
Blue and White (2019–2022) | |||
Liberalism | |||
Israeli Liberal Party (1961–1988) | |||
Independent Liberals (1965–1992) | |||
Shinui (1974–present) |
| ||
Democratic Movement for Change (1976–1978) | |||
Hetz (2006–2012) | |||
Kadima (2006–2015) | |||
Hatnua (2012–2019) | |||
Yesh Atid (2012–present) | |||
National Unity (2022–present) | |||
National liberalism | Likud (1973–present) | ||
Telem (2019–present) | |||
New Hope (2020–present) | |||
Shinui was a Zionist, secular, and anti-clerical free market liberal party and political movement in Israel. The party twice became the third-largest in the Knesset, but both occasions were followed by a split and collapse; in 1977, the party won 15 seats as part of the Democratic Movement for Change, but the alliance split in 1978, and Shinui was reduced to two seats at the next elections. In 2003, the party won 15 seats alone, but lost them all three years later after most of its MKs left to form new parties. The party was a member of Liberal International until 2009.
Elections for the 17th Knesset were held in Israel on 28 March 2006. The voting resulted in a plurality of seats for the then-new Kadima party, followed by the Labor Party, and a major loss for the Likud party.
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.
The Democratic Movement for Change, commonly known by its Hebrew abbreviation Dash, was a short-lived and initially highly successful centrist political party in Israel. Formed in 1976 by numerous well-known non-politicians, it ceased to exist two years later.
Hetz was a secularist political party in Israel.
Yoel Hasson is an Israeli politician and member of the Knesset for Kadima and Hatnuah. Yoel has been a member of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and twentieth Knessets, and is currently a member of the opposition movement, in a center left party.
Early legislative elections were held in Israel on 22 January 2013 to elect the 120 members of the nineteenth Knesset. Public debate over the Tal Law had nearly led to early elections in 2012, but they were aborted at the last moment after Kadima briefly joined the government. The elections were later called in early October 2012 after failure to agree on the budget for the 2013 fiscal year.
Yesh Atid is a centrist, liberal Zionist political party in Israel. It was founded in 2012 by former TV journalist Yair Lapid, the son of the former Shinui party politician and Israeli Justice Minister Tommy Lapid.
Early legislative elections were held in Israel on 17 March 2015 to elect the 120 members of the twentieth Knesset. Disagreements within the governing coalition, particularly over the budget and a "Jewish state" proposal, led to the dissolution of the government in December 2014. The Labor Party and Hatnuah formed a coalition, called Zionist Union, with the hope of defeating the Likud party, which had led the previous governing coalition along with Yisrael Beiteinu, Yesh Atid, The Jewish Home, and Hatnuah.
Hatnua was a liberal political party in Israel formed by former Israeli Foreign Minister and Vice Prime Minister Tzipi Livni to present an alternative to voters frustrated by the stalemate in the Israeli–Palestinian peace process.
Polls may not add up to 120 seats due to rounding or omitted parties that dropped out or did not poll consistently.
The thirty-third government of Israel, also known as the third Netanyahu government, was formed after the January 2013 Knesset elections, took office on 18 March 2013 and served until 14 May 2015. The Prime Minister was Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud; the government was a coalition of Likud, Yisrael Beiteinu, Yesh Atid, the Jewish Home, and Hatnuah.
Politics in Israel is 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.
Israeli polls do not take the electoral threshold into account in a uniform fashion. Some polls report the number of seats each party would win purely according to the percentages, as though there were no threshold; others eliminate parties that poll below the threshold and distribute the 120 available Knesset seats only among those who pass it. As a result, parties that poll at or near the threshold can show inconsistent results, bouncing between 0 and the minimum 3 or 4 seats.
Meretz was a left-wing political party in Israel. The party was formed in 1992 by the merger of Ratz, Mapam and Shinui, and was at its peak between 1992 and 1996 when it had 12 seats. It had no seats in the Knesset following its failure to pass the electoral threshold in the 2022 elections, the only time it failed to win seats in the Knesset.
Early legislative elections were held in Israel on 9 April 2019 to elect the 120 members of the 21st Knesset. Elections had been due in November 2019, but were brought forward following a dispute between members of the current government over a bill on national service for the ultra-Orthodox population, as well as impending corruption charges against incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In the run-up to the April 2019 Israeli legislative election, which was held on 9 April, various organisations carried out opinion polling to gauge voting intentions in Israel. Results of such polls are displayed in this article, ranging from the previous legislative election, held on 17 March 2015, to the 2019 election.
The September 2019 Israeli legislative election was held using closed list proportional representation. Each party presented a list of candidates to the Central Elections Committee prior to the election.
Legislative elections were held in Israel on 23 March 2021 to elect the 120 members of the 24th Knesset. It was the fourth Knesset election in two years, amidst the continued political deadlock following the previous three elections in April 2019, September 2019 and 2020. Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett announced that they had formed a rotation government on 2 June 2021, which was approved on 13 June 2021.