Abstract

THE DECLINE OF THE ISRAELILABOR PARTY: AN ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL CRISIS IN THE YEARS 1967-1977

Daniel Galily, David Schwartz

Volume: 6 Issue: 4 2016

Abstract:

After the elections of 1973, it became clear that two large blocks of parties were struggling for the government of the State of Israel, Labor and Likud, and both had a diverse social basis in which there are members of the middle and upper classes alongside members of the working class. Because of the multi-class party structure, which commenced in 1965, the arguments on social and economic questions were duplicated into the parties themselves. The differences of approach on questions of social policy now divided between groups in the parties and between one party and another. The phenomenon of the ‘class party’, such as Mapam and the Liberal Party, had disappeared.1 ; 2 The difficulties of the multi-class party in this period are most prominent on the background of the internal arguments in the Labour Party and on the background of the differences between the government and the Histadrut (Workers’ Union) in the years 1974-1977. In this period, the Likud enjoyed the fact that it was in the opposition, since it succeeded in criticizing the government’s policy simultaneously from the replicas rolex right and from the left: from the right members of the Liberal Party suggested proposals for a neoliberal policy while from the left representatives of the Mizrachis3 in the party, and especially the head of the faction in the Histadrut4 , David Levy, raised demands for a more generous social policy.5 The Yom Kippur War of 1973 halted the continuation of the rapid growth and hastened economic processes that had begun already in 1967: the balance of payments worsened, the defense and security expenses, the import of capital, and loans for defense greatly increased, and the part of the public sector in the economy and in the national product steadily increased.

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