Israeli Political Parties
Since Israel’s creation until 1977, Israeli politics had been dominated by one political party. For all of Israel’s independence, they have been filled with many political parties. ... Almost everyone in Israel voted unless they did not because of political reasons. A vote was not for single person, but was instead for political parties. ... The Knesset could not have with less than ten parties filling the seats. Up until 1977 the Knesset was filled with many parties, but Mapai/Labor or its many aliases were always the dominant party. ... No matter what other parties voted on, Mapai/Labor held so many seats that their votes outnumbered the others. ... A dominant party in not simply the party with the most votes, it is the party who truly has influence over all other parties. ... Changes in population also had a major effect on Israeli politics. While early Israeli settlers were Zionists from Europe or North America known as Ashkenazim, there was whole other group of Jews know as Sephardim from Asian or African countries. ... The second generation of Sephardic Jews stopped supporting Mapai/Labor, and instead looked to other political parties. ... Another change in population and in political power was the amount of Orthodox Jews voting. ... There was also a push towards higher education, and the Israeli colleges resembled America’s. Many Israeli students went to America to further their education and returned to Israel with a western outlook. ... These groups leaving the Labor party had weakened it enough that the Likud Party could take over as the Dominant Political Party. ... It pushed towards a free market and this appealed to the growing individualism outlook and western ideas coming into Israel, and also appealed to a lot of the educated Israeli’s. ... Likud appealed to native born second generation Israeli’s more than any immigrant group, and it had most of the support from the Sephardic Jews. ... Instead of establishing a new period in politics for Israel where the Likud was the Dominant Party, 1977 marked the begging of a period filled with competition between parties. ... Likud pushed nationalism, and asked for all Israeli’s to sacrifice for their security, but when their security failed, many decided to no longer push their support for the Likud.