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

Gyula Gazdik

Number of Mandates

Major religious

Election Year

organisations 1949

1951

1955

1959

1961

1965

1969 1973

1977

1981

1984

1988

1992

1996

1999

United Religious

Front* 16

Orthodox

National Religious

Party

1(1+

11

12

12

11

12 10

12

6

4

5

6

9

5

Ultraorthodox

Parties

Agudat Israel

3

4

4

4

4

4

2

5

Poalei Agudat Israel

2

2

2

2

1

2++

U nited Torah Front’

6

6

5

United Torah Judaism*

4

4

5

Shas

4

5

6

10

17

* joint list, + A Mizrahi and the Hapoel Hamizrahi, the combined mandates of the predecessor parties of the URF (2+ 8), ++ one former URF party (Morasha) joint list

The history of the religious parties dates to the pre-World War I period. The political goals of Zionism created a wide rift in the ranks of the Orthodox Jewry: the religious Zionists on the one side and the ultra-Orthodox orientated Jewry on the other. Due to rising nationalism in Europe and the dangers of assimilation, the former finally consented to the Zionist programme of national integration in Palestine. However, they demanded that the rules of the Orthodox way of life as set out in the Torah, must be implemented and the would-be Jewish State in the Holy Land must become the spiritual centre for the world's Jewry. They had maintained that immigration to Palestine is the first step towards the long- awaited redemption. Their Spiritual Centre /Mizrahi/ - established in Vilnius in 1902 - closely collaborated with the socialists during British Mandate.17

By contrast to the Mizrahi, the East European-based powerful ultra-orthodox /Haredi/, explicitly represented the nationalist orientation. According to their view, redemption will only occur with the arrival of the Messiah and every practical step taken towards state formation is by necessity an interference in the God-willed historical process. In order to counteract the growing influence of the Zionists, the representatives of the German ultra-orthodox cluster established the Jewish world society; the Society of Israel /Agudat Israel/ in Katowicze in 1912. The Torah became the point of reference and their main targets comprised religious studies, Jewish education in general, fostering Jewish traditions and the improvement of the socioeconomic welfare of Jews in the Diaspora.18 The labour faction of this movement, the Poalei Agudat Israel, refused any collaboration with the Zionists until the Second

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