Külügyi Szemle - A Teleki László Intézet Külpolitikai Tanulmányok Központja folyóirata - 2003 (2. évfolyam)

2003 / 1. szám - KÖZEL-KELET - Gazdik Gyula: The evolution of the Israeli party system

The evolution of the Israeli party system

Maki consisted primarily of Jewish members, the RaKach comprised mainly Arab communists. In conjunction with other leftist organisations, the latter established the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality /Hadash/, which continues to be the sole representative body of the communists in the Knesset since 1977. By contrast to the other parties, this grouping represents a „radical" view: the reinstatement of Israel's pre- third Arab-Israeli war borders as the only solution to the crisis and - with respect to the Palestinian question - the liquidation of settlements in the occupied territories and the recognition of a Palestine state with East-Jerusalem as its capital.

Right wing and liberal parties

The Table below illustrates that in this bloc the Likud became the dominant parliamentary force:10

Main rightist organisations

1949

1951

1955

1959

Number of Mandates

Election Year

1961 1965 1969 1973 1977 1981

1984

1988

1992

1996

1900

Liberal Party

14

8

15

17

34

Gahal*

26 26

Likud

39* 43* 48*

41*

40

32

32

19

For the Nation

2

3

2

Comet

2

8

National Unity*

4

Liberal groupings

Prog ressive /1 nd epen dent

Libera1 Party

5

4

5

6

5 4 4 1

General Zionists

7

23

13

8

Liberal Party

17*

Shinui

2

3

26

* joint list

After the establishment of the State of Israel, the political spectrum comprised the right wing Freedom Movement /Herut/ on the one hand and - after the split - the two independent centralist movements, the General Zionists and the Progressives or Independent Liberal Party, on the other hand. The latter - having been greatly influenced by liberal minded Israel's first President Chaim Weizman - advocated close cooperation with the Zionist left. The Herut movement established by Vladimir Jabotinsky /1880—1940/ followed revisionist Zionism. The prominent Zionist leader promoted the extension of Jewish statehood to the whole of Palestine - i.e. the territory of the British Mandate, as well as the Trans-Jordanian territory, which had been detached in 1922. Like Ben-Gurion, he promulgated the imperatives of Zionism 2003. tavasz

41