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Israel's Political History
1992-1996
Under Rabin's leadership, the Labor Party outpolled the Likud in 1992 and formed a coalition government under an odd alliance of the left-wing Meretz Party and the religious Shas. The Likud had lost votes in part because the right-wing was divided among many parties some of which did not even muster enough votes to win a Knesset seat. The main issue of this election was the future of the peace process.
The new Labor government froze settlement building in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, in a policy explained by Rabin as a reordering of priorities. While there was no breakthrough in the talks with Syria, despite the government having signalled a willingness to relinquish much of the Golan Heights, there were major breakthroughs with the Palestinians in the form of the Oslo Accords signed in September 1993. Under these accords, the Palestinians were granted autonomy in 1994 in much of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
 After years of secret flirtations with King Hussein, a peace treaty was signed with Jordan in October 1994. Israel's international status improved drastically and the Arab boycott all but disappeared. At the same time Palestinian terrorist groups opposed to the peace process continued to launch even more daring and devastating attacks against Israelis, mainly in the form of suicide bombings.
On November 4, 1995 Yitzhak Rabin was assassinatd by a right-wng Israeli, Yigal Amir, who objected to the peace process and the handing over of territories to the Palestinians. At first the assassination strengthened Labor's position, but under the renewed leadership of Peres, and with the further intensification of terrorist attacks, Likud's new leader, Binyamin Netanyahu , was elected prime minister in 1996.
Netanyahu was the first Israeli premier chosen under a system of direct election, by which Israelis cast two separate ballots, one for prime minister and the other for a party to represent them in Parliament. That system was later canceled, and in the coming election in January 2003, Israelis will elect only by party, and the head of the party winning the most votes will become prime minister.
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