Everything about Labor Party Israel totally explained
The
Israeli Labor Party (
Mifleget HaAvoda HaYisraelit), generally known in Israel as
Avoda is a
center-left political party in
Israel. It is a
social democratic and
Zionist party, a member of the
Socialist International and an observer member of the
Party of European Socialists. Since 1999 the party has been allied to the small left-wing,
religious zionist Meimad, in an agreement whereby Meimad gets the tenth seat on Labor's list.
History
The foundations for the formation of the Israeli Labour Party were laid shortly before the
1965 Knesset elections when
Mapai, the largest left-wing party in the country formed an alliance with
Labour Unity. The alliance was an attempt by Mapai to shore up the party's share of the vote following a break-away of eight MKs (around a fifth of Mapai's Knesset faction) led by
David Ben-Gurion to form a new party,
Rafi, in protest against Mapai's failure to approve a change to the country's proportional representation voting system.
The alliance, called the
Labour Alignment won 45 seats in the elections, and was able to form the government in coalition with the
National Religious Party,
Mapam, the
Independent Liberals,
Agudat Israel Workers,
Progress and Development and
Cooperation and Brotherhood. After the
Six-Day War broke out, Rafi and
Gahal joined the coalition.
In 1968, Mapam and Rafi officially joined the Labour Alignment (though Ben-Gurion resigned from Rafi and created another new party, the
National List, in protest), with it renamed just
Alignment. Although Mapam retained its independence within the alliance, Mapai, Labour Unity and Rafi decided to officially merge into one body; the
Israeli Labor Party.
As the largest faction within the Alignment, Labor came to dominate it. Mapam left during the
eighth Knesset, but rejoined shortly afterwards. They broke away again during the
eleventh Knesset, angry at
Shimon Peres's decision to form a national unity government with
Likud. Although the Independent Liberals merged into the Alignment in the 1980s, they'd no Knesset representation at the time.
Shortly before the
1992 elections, the Alignment ceased to exist, with all factions formally merged into the Labor Party. Led by
Yitzhak Rabin, the party won the elections and formed the government. Rabin's decision to advance peace talks with the Palestinians to the point of signing the
Oslo Accords led to his
his assassination by
Yigal Amir in 1995. Peres decided to call early elections in 1996 to give him a mandate for advancing the peace process. However, his ploy failed; although Labor won the most seats in the
Knesset election, he lost to the
election for Prime Minister to
Benjamin Netanyahu following a wave of
suicide bombings by
Hamas. Netanyahu and Likud were thus able to form the government.
With his coalition falling apart, Netanyahu decided to call early elections in 1999.
Ehud Barak won the internal primaries, and was nominated as the Labor candidate for Prime Minister. Meanwhile, the party entered an electoral alliance with
Meimad and
Gesher called
One Israel. Barak won the
Prime Minister election, whilst One Israel won the
Knesset elections, albeit with only 26 seats.
Barak started by forming a 75-member coalition together with
Shas,
Meretz,
Yisrael BaAliyah, the
National Religious Party and
United Torah Judaism. The coalition with religious parties (NRP, Shas and UTJ) caused tensions with the secularist Meretz, who quit the coalition after a disagreement with Shas over the authority of the Deputy Education Minister. The rest of the parties left before the
Camp David 2000 summit. Following the
October 2000 riots and the violence of the
al-Aqsa Intifada, Barak resigned from office. He then lost a
special election for Prime Minister to
Likud's
Ariel Sharon. However, Labor remained in Sharon's coalition as he formed a
national unity government with Likud, Labor, Shas, Yisrael BaAliyah and United Torah Judaism, and were given two of the most important cabinet portfolios; Peres was appointed
Minister of Foreign Affairs and
Benjanin Ben-Eliezer was made
Defense Minister. Labor supported
Operation Defensive Shield, which was conducted in April 2002 against Palestinian terrorists in the
West Bank. After harsh criticism that Peres and Ben-Elizer were "puppets" of Sharon and not promoting the peace process, Labor quit the government in 2003.
Prior to the
2003 elections,
Amram Mitzna won the party primaries, and led the party into the election with a platform that included unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. The party was routed in the elections, winning only 19 seats (its lowest ever), whilst Sharon's Likud won 38 (40 after
Yisrael BaAliyah merged into the party). Subsequently, due to internal opposition, Mitzna resigned from the party leadership, and soon there after was replaced by Shimon Peres. Despite being omitted from the original right-wing coalition, Sharon invited Labor into the coalition to shore up support for the
disengagement plan (effectively Mitzna's policy which he'd earlier lambasted) after the
National Union and the
National Religious Party had left the government.
On
8 November 2005 Shimon Peres was replaced as the leader of the Labor party by the election of left-wing Histadrut union leader
Amir Peretz in an internal Labor party ballot. Peretz stated his intention to reassert Labor's traditional
socialist policies and took Labor party out of the government, prompting Sharon to resign and call for new
elections in March 2006.
Current status
In the
elections in March 2006 the party placed second with 19 seats, a loss of 3 from the previous elections.
After the March 2006 election Labor joined Ehud Olmert's coalition government as the junior partner with Kadima. Labor was awarded a number of ministries including the defense ministry, which went to Labor leader Amir Peretz. The IDF performed poorly in the Second Lebanon War with Hezbollah in June-July 2006. Both Olmert and Peretz suffered the blame for this performance.
On 28 May 2007, Labor members went to the polls in party primaries. Amir Peretz finished third in the primaries, trailing both former Prime Minister
Ehud Barak and political newcomer
Ami Ayalon - the former head of
Shin Bet, Israel's primary intelligence agency. Neither Ayalon nor Barak achieved the 40% necessary for an outright victory, so a second round of voting took place on 12 June 2007. Both Barak and Ayalon stated that they'd withdraw from Ehud Olmert's coalition unless the Prime Minister resigns. On the night of the 12th of June, 2007, Ehud Barak won back the leadership of the party.
Ideology
Past
Mapai evolved from the
socialist Poale Zion movement and adhered to the
Socialist Zionist ideology promulgated by
Nahum Syrkin and
Ber Borochov. During Ben-Gurion's leadership (1930s-1950s) Mapai focused mainly on the
Zionist agenda, since it was the most urgent issue then - establishing a national homeland for
Jews.
After the founding of the
state of Israel, Mapai engaged in nation building - the establishment of the
Israel Defense Forces (while dismantling every other armed group), the establishment of many settlements, the settling of more than 1,000,000 Jewish immigrants and the desire to unite all the inhabitants of Israel under a new Zionist Jewish Israeli culture (an ideology known as the "
Melting pot" כור היתוך).
Labor in the past was even more
hawkish on security and defense issues than it's today. During its years in office, Israel has fought the
1956 Sinai War, the
1967 Six Day War and the
1973 Yom Kippur War.
Current
In recent years (up until 2005), the ILP became a centrist party. It was no longer considered
socialist or
social democratic (though it retained membership in the
Socialist International) but had a centrist platform, similar to the third-way of
British Labour Party under
Tony Blair. Economic policies in Israel being seldom hotly debated even within the major parties, actual policies depended much more on initiative by the civil service than on political ideologies. Therefore, Labor's terms in office during this period didn't differ significantly in terms of economic policy from those of its rival.
In 2003, the ILP experienced a small split when former members
Yossi Beilin and
Yael Dayan joined
Meretz-Yachad to form a new left wing party.
In November 2005,
Amir Peretz, leader of the social democratic
One Nation which had merged into the ILP, was elected chairman of the party, defeating
Shimon Peres. Under Peretz, and especially in the
2006 electoral campaign, the party took a significant ideological turn, putting social and economic issues on top of its agenda, and advocating a moderate social democratic approach (including increases in minimum wage and social security payments), in sharp contrast to the
neo-liberal policies led by former Finance Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu.
In 2006, several members of the ILP left to join the new centrist grouping,
Kadima; these included former Labor leader Shimon Peres,
Haim Ramon, and
Dalia Itzik.
Party leaders
Other prominent members
Prominent former members include:
Yigal Allon - Acting Prime-Minister
Moshe Dayan - Defense Minister
Abba Eban - Minister of Foreign Affairs
Chaim Herzog - President of Israel
Efraim Katzir - President of Israel
Yitzhak Navon - President of Israel
Zalman Shazar - President of Israel
Ezer Weizman - President of Israel
Current MKs
Amir Peretz (slot reserved for ILP Chairman)
Isaac Herzog
Ophir Pines-Paz
Avishay Braverman (former president of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
Yuli Tamir (slot reserved for women)
Ami Ayalon (former head of Shin Bet)
Eitan Cabel (slot reserved for ILP General Secretary)
Binyamin Ben-Eliezer
Shelly Yachimovich (slot reserved for women)
Michael Melchior (slot reserved for Meimad)
Matan Vilnai
Colette Avital (slot reserved for women)
Efraim Sneh
Dani Yatom
Nadia Hilou (slot reserved for women)
Shalom Simhon (slot reserved for Moshavim)
Orit Noked (slot reserved for Kibbutzim)
Yoram Marciano (slot reserved for poor neighbourhoods)
Raleb Majadele (slot reserved for Arab sector)Further Information
Get more info on 'Labor Party Israel'.
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