POLITICAL PARTIES:
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The Left

Workers' parties were dominant in the pre-state Zionist movement and in the political leadership of the Yishuv (the Jewish community in Palestine) in the mid 1930s. This situation continued after the establishment of statehood in 1948 through 1977. Among these parties, which may all be defined as social-democratic, Mapai, the party of David Ben-Gurion and the largest among them, was the most pragmatic and moderate. Mapam was the most Marxist and remained pro-Soviet until after the death of Stalin. Ahdut Ha'avoda was most nationalist and activist in terms of Israel's territorial demands and the Arab-Israeli conflict (after the Six Day War some of its leaders joined the right). The mixed Jewish-Arab Communist Party was non-Zionist, at times anti-Zionist, and never played a central role.

In no election did the workers' parties win a majority of seats, but won the largest number of seats until 1977. During this period the economy was centrally run, though private entrepreneurship was encouraged to a certain extent. The Histradrut workers federation, which owned as much of 20% of the country's industrial enterprises, and the kibbutzim (collective farms) and moshavim (cooperative farms) that produced most of the agricultural produce, were Labor dominated. The Labor Party was founded in 1968, when Mapai, Ahdut Ha'avoda, and Rafi (a party formed by Ben-Gurion in 1965) united.

As of the mid-1960s various smaller, more radical left-wing parties - some of which were more human-rights than socialist-oriented - emerged and disappeared. Mapam, which from 1969 to 1984 was part of the Labor Alignment, eventually united with the liberal-socialist Ratz and the liberal Shinui, to form Meretz in 1992.

Following the Yom Kippur War, the Labor Alignment started losing its popularity and dominance, especially after losing the support of Sephardic voters. From 1977 to 1984 it was in opposition, and from 1984 to 1990 the Alignment, without Mapam, participated in national unity governments with the Likud. Labor, together with Meretz and for a short period Shas, ran the government from 1992 to 1996. Very little socialism remained in the Left, including the kibbutzim, with growing emphasis being placed on "capitalism with a soul" - human and civil rights and greater flexibility in the pursuit of peace with the Palestinians and the Arab states. All the parties of the left remained in opposition during the Netanyahu government from 1996 to 1999. Then Labor's leader Ehud Barak defeated Netanyahu in 1999, and succeeded him as Prime Minister. Barak subsequently lost a snap election in 2000 to Ariel Sharon over the outbreak of the 2nd Palestinian intifada and demise of the Oslo Accords.

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