Meretz

Shulamit Aloni

Shulamit Aloni (Hebrew: שולמית אלוני‎, born November 29, 1928) is an Israeli politician and left-wing activist. She is a prominent member of the Israeli peace camp, founded the Ratz party and was leader of the Meretz party and served as Minister of Education from 1992 to 1993.

Born Shulamit Adler in Tel Aviv, her mother was a seamstress and her father was a carpenter, both descended from Polish Jewish rabbinical families. She was sent to boarding school during World War II while her parents served in the British Army. As a youth she was a member of the Hashomer Hatzair socialist Zionist youth movement and the Palmach. During the 1948 Israeli War of Independence she fought to liberate the Old City of Jerusalem and was captured by Jordanian forces.

Following the establishment of the state of Israel, Aloni worked with child refugees and helped establish a school for immigrant children. She was a teacher while studying law. In 1952 she married Reuven Aloni and moved to Kfar Shmaryahu.

Aloni joined Mapai in 1959. She also worked as a lawyer and hosted a radio show Outside Working Hours that dealt with human rights and women's rights. Aloni also worked as a columnist for several newspapers.

In 1965 she was first elected to the Knesset on the list of the Alignment (a merger of Mapai and Ahdut HaAvoda), and subsequently founded the Israel Consumers Council, which she chaired for four years.

She left the Alignment in 1973 and established Ratz (Citizens Rights Movement), a party advocating electoral reform, separation of religion and state and human rights. The party won three Knesset mandates in the 1973 elections. Ratz initially joined the Alignment-led government with Aloni as minister without portfolio but she resigned immediately to protest the appointment to cabinet of Yitzhak Rafael. Ratz briefly became Ya'ad – Civil Rights Movement when independent MK Aryeh Eliav joined the faction, but returned to its original status soon after.

Throughout the 1970s Aloni attempted to create a dialogue with Palestinians in hopes of achieving a lasting peace settlement. During the 1982 Lebanon War she established the "International Center for Peace in the Middle East". In 1984, Ratz aligned with Peace Now and the Left Camp of Israel to increase its size in the Knesset to five mandates. In 1991, she led Ratz into a coalition with Shinui and Mapam to from the new Meretz party which won 12 seats under her leadership in the 1992 election. Aloni became Minister of Education under Yitzhak Rabin but was forced to resign after a year due to her views on separation of religion and state. She was reappointed Minister of Communications and Science and Culture and served until 1996 when she retired from party politics.

Aloni is on the board of the Yesh Din organization, which was established in March 2005, and it is "comprised of volunteers who have organized to oppose the continuing violation of Palestinian human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory".

Aloni is a recipient of the Israel Prize. In 1998 she was awarded the Emil Grunzweig Human Rights Award by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.

To the top

Nitzan Horowitz

Nitzan Horowitz (Hebrew: ניצן הורוביץ‎, born 24 February 1965) is an Israeli journalist and politician. He was the Foreign Affairs commentator and head of the International desk at News 10, the news division of Channel 10, before being elected to the Knesset on the New Movement-Meretz list in 2009.

Horowitz was born in Rishon LeZion in 1965. He graduated the Tel Aviv University Law School. In his early journalistic career he served as a Military Affairs reporter during the later phase of the 1982 Lebanon war, as well as the International News editor at Israel Army Radio (1983-1987). In 1987 he began working at "Hadashot" - an Israeli newspaper - as the Foreign Affairs editor. In 1989 he started his career at Haaretz, as the Foreign Affairs Editor. He served as "Haaretz" correspondent in Paris (1993-1998), covering also the European Union, and as Haaretz correspondent in Washington D.C. (1998-2001). Back in Israel, Horowitz was the chief foreign affairs columnist for Haaretz.

When "News 10" began broadcasting on January 2002, Horowitz founded its international desk. He created major documentary films following the Tsunami disaster in Eastern Asia and the failed manhunt after Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan. He took an integral part in News 10's London & Kirschenbaum with reports and analysis on world affairs.

In 2008 Horowitz created and directed a documentary series for Channel 10, titled "WORLD: The Next Generation - Nitzan Horowitz in search of tomorrow". The series follows major phenomena and trends that shape the future of our world in the coming decades: the ageing crisis, urban sustainability, immigration, construction and industrial development in China, and the hi-tech revolution in India.

Horowitz served as a board member of ACRI - the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. He was also active in environmental issues and in 2007 he received the "Pratt Prize" for Environmental Journalism.

In December 2008, he resigned from Channel 10 and became a candidate of the Israeli left-wing party, New Movement-Meretz in the upcoming elections. On December 18, he gained the third slot on the joint list of Hatnua Hahadasha (The New Movement) and Meretz. He said "My goal is to continue to do what I have been talking about over the past years, from protecting the seashore to promoting more sophisticated, nonpolluting public transportation".

Meretz won three seats in the 2009 Israeli elections on February 10, 2009, election, making Horowitz the second openly gay Knesset member in Israeli history. The first, Uzi Even, also was a member of Meretz. On February 16, he announced a plan to bring to the Knesset a bill that would allow marriages or civil unions between two partners regardless of their religion, ethnic background, or gender.

Horowitz resides in Tel Aviv with his life partner.

To the top

Meretz-Yachad

The New Movement-Meretz (Hebrew: התנועה החדשה-מרצ‎), previously known as Meretz, then Yachad, and then Meretz-Yachad (Hebrew: מרצ-יחד‎, Vitality - Together) is a far-left social democratic political party in Israel. It is not connected with the defunct Yachad party from the 1980s.

Meretz was formed in 1992 prior to the elections by an alliance of three left-wing parties; Ratz, Mapam and Shinui, and was initially led by Ratz's chairwoman and long-time Knesset member Shulamit Aloni. The name "Meretz" (מרצ) was chosen as an acronym for Mapam (מפ"ם) and Ratz (רצ). The third party of the alliance wasn't reflected in its name, but was instead mentioned in the party's campaign slogan: "ממשלה עם מרצ, הכוח לעשות את השינוי" (A government with vigor , the strength to make the change ). Its first electoral test was a success, with the party winning twelve seats, making it the third largest in the Knesset. Meretz became the major coalition partner of Yitzhak Rabin's Labor Party, helping pave the way for the Oslo Accords. The party also picked up several ministerial portfolios; Aloni was made Minister of Education, though disputes over the role of religion in education meant she was moved out of the education ministry to become Minister Without Portfolio in May 1993. In June she became Minister of Communications and Minister of Science and Technology, a role that was later renamed Minister of Science and the Arts. Amnon Rubinstein became Minister of Energy and Infrastructure and Minister of Science and Technology and later Minister of Education, Culture, and Sport, whilst Yossi Sarid was named Minister of the Environment and Yair Tzaban Minister of Immigrant Absorption.

After the 1996 elections, in which Meretz lost a quarter of its seats, Aloni lost internal leadership elections to Yossi Sarid and retired. In 1997 the three parties officially merged into a single entity, though part of Shinui (under the leadership of Avraham Poraz) broke away to form a separate movement. Later in the Knesset session David Zucker also left the party to sit as an independent MK.

The 1999 elections saw the party regain some of its former strength, picking up 10 seats, including the first ever female Israeli Arab MK, Hussniya Jabara. Meretz were invited into Ehud Barak's coalition, with Sarid becoming Education Minister, Ran Cohen Minister of Industry and Trade, and Haim Oron Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. However, after Ariel Sharon beat Barak in a special election for Prime Minister in 2001, Meretz left the government.

On October 22, 2002, Meretz MK Uzi Even made history by becoming the first openly gay Member of Knesset, after Amnon Rubinstein retired. This created a vacancy and Even was next on the Meretz list. His term lasted less than three months, however, as the Knesset was dissolved in January, 2003. Even's entry to the Knesset was met by mixed reactions from the ultra-orthodox parties; Shas's Nissim Ze'ev was the harshest, saying Even "symbolized the bestialization of humanity," adding that he should be "hidden under the carpet" and banned from entering the Knesset.

For the 2003 elections, Meretz were joined by Roman Bronfman's Democratic Choice. However, the party shrank again, this time to just six seats. Sarid immediately took responsibility and resigned from leadership, though he did not retire from the Knesset and continued serving as an MK, before stepping down prior to the 2006 elections.

In December 2003, Meretz was disbanded in order to merge with Yossi Beilin's non-parliamentary Shahar (Hebrew: שח"ר) movement. The original name suggested for the new party was Ya'ad (Hebrew: יעד, Goal), but was not used because it sounded like the Russian word for poison ("yad"), and it was feared that it might alienate Israel's one million Russian-speaking voters (although there had been two parties previously in Israel using the name - Ya'ad and Ya'ad – Civil Rights Movement, the latter ironically a forerunner of Meretz, they both existed before large-scale immigration from the Soviet Union). Instead, the name Yachad (Hebrew: יח"ד) was chosen. As well as meaning "Together", it is also a Hebrew acronym for Social-Democratic Israel (Hebrew: ישראל חברתית דמוקרטית, Yisrael Hevratit Demokratit).

The new party was established in order to unite and resuscitate the Israeli Zionist peace camp, which had been soundly defeated in the 2003 elections (dropping from 56 Knesset members in 1992 to 24 in 2003) following the al-Aqsa Intifada. The party's purpose was to unite a variety of dovish Zionist movements with the dovish wing of the Labor Party. However, the efforts were largely unsuccessful as, except for the original Meretz, Shahar and Democratic Choice, no other movement joined the new party. It has suffered from declining popular interest in left-wing peace movements, as a result of the rise in Palestinian violence, and only 20,000 people are now registered members of the party, half the number who were prior to the 1999 party primaries.

In March 2004, Yossi Beilin was elected party leader, beating Ran Cohen, and started a two year term as the first chairman of Yachad. In July 2005 the party decided to change its name to Meretz-Yachad, because opinion polls revealed that the name Yachad was not recognisable to the Israeli public, and that they preferred the old name Meretz. The chairman Beilin opposed the motion to revert the name to Meretz and a compromise between the old and new names, Meretz-Yachad, was agreed upon.

However, in the 2006 election campaign the party dropped the Yachad part, running as just Meretz, under the slogan "Meretz on the left, the Human in the centre". Nevertheless, it failed to stop the party's decline, as they won just five seats, the lowest total in the party's history. In 2007, Tsvia Greenfeld, sixth on the party list, became the first ever female Ultra-orthodox Knesset member, following Yossi Beilin's decision to retire from politics.

In the party leadership contest in late 2007 Beilin withdrew his candidacy after it became clear that Haim Oron was leading in the polls. Oron went on to win the internal elections held on 18 March 2008 with 54.5% of the vote, beating Ran Cohen (27.1%) and Zehava Gal-On (18.1%) to become Meretz's new chairman.

On December 22, 2008, Meretz finalized its merger with Hatnua HaHadasha ("The New Movement") for the 2009 Israeli elections. The alliance failed miserably; with the left-wing bloc in general suffering a harsh blow in Israeli legislative elections in 2009.

Meretz-Yachad defines itself as a Zionist, Green, left-wing social democratic party. It has inherited Meretz's membership in the Socialist International.

It sees itself as the political representative of the Israeli Peace movement, in the Knesset - as well as municipal councils and other local political bodies.

In the international media it has been described as left-wing, social democratic, dovish, civil libertarian, and anti-occupation.

Meretz-Yachad's approach toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has abandoned the "securitist" approach of its predecessor Meretz and focused its criticism at the conduct of former PM Ariel Sharon and the government. The party was torn in whether to support Sharon's disengagement plan, though in November 2004, it announced that it would abstain in motions of no confidence in the Likud government in order to prevent the government from falling prior to the implementation of the plan. With the defection of Shinui from Ariel Sharon's government, Meretz-Yachad's decision helped Sharon to execute his plan.

A number of progressive Zionist organizations that share many of the ideas and ideals of Meretz-Yachad are affiliated with the Israel-based World Union of Meretz; this includes Meretz USA in the U.S. and the London-based Meretz UK, France's Cercle Bernard Lazare .... The World Union of Meretz has representation in a number of organizations, such as the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish National Fund.

Meretz USA has joined with other progressive Zionists in the 'States and Canada to form the Union of Progressive Zionists, a college student network, as well as the Jewish Academic Network for Israeli-Palestinian Peace.

Hashomer Hatzair, a progressive Zionist youth movement with branches in many countries, is informally associated with Meretz through its historic connection with Mapam.

To the top

New Movement-Meretz

The New Movement-Meretz (Hebrew: התנועה החדשה-מרצ‎), previously known as Meretz, then Yachad, and then Meretz-Yachad (Hebrew: מרצ-יחד‎, Vitality - Together) is a far-left social democratic political party in Israel. It is not connected with the defunct Yachad party from the 1980s.

Meretz was formed in 1992 prior to the elections by an alliance of three left-wing parties; Ratz, Mapam and Shinui, and was initially led by Ratz's chairwoman and long-time Knesset member Shulamit Aloni. The name "Meretz" (מרצ) was chosen as an acronym for Mapam (מפ"ם) and Ratz (רצ). The third party of the alliance wasn't reflected in its name, but was instead mentioned in the party's campaign slogan: "ממשלה עם מרצ, הכוח לעשות את השינוי" (A government with vigor , the strength to make the change ). Its first electoral test was a success, with the party winning twelve seats, making it the third largest in the Knesset. Meretz became the major coalition partner of Yitzhak Rabin's Labor Party, helping pave the way for the Oslo Accords. The party also picked up several ministerial portfolios; Aloni was made Minister of Education, though disputes over the role of religion in education meant she was moved out of the education ministry to become Minister Without Portfolio in May 1993. In June she became Minister of Communications and Minister of Science and Technology, a role that was later renamed Minister of Science and the Arts. Amnon Rubinstein became Minister of Energy and Infrastructure and Minister of Science and Technology and later Minister of Education, Culture, and Sport, whilst Yossi Sarid was named Minister of the Environment and Yair Tzaban Minister of Immigrant Absorption.

After the 1996 elections, in which Meretz lost a quarter of its seats, Aloni lost internal leadership elections to Yossi Sarid and retired. In 1997 the three parties officially merged into a single entity, though part of Shinui (under the leadership of Avraham Poraz) broke away to form a separate movement. Later in the Knesset session David Zucker also left the party to sit as an independent MK.

The 1999 elections saw the party regain some of its former strength, picking up 10 seats, including the first ever female Israeli Arab MK, Hussniya Jabara. Meretz were invited into Ehud Barak's coalition, with Sarid becoming Education Minister, Ran Cohen Minister of Industry and Trade, and Haim Oron Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. However, after Ariel Sharon beat Barak in a special election for Prime Minister in 2001, Meretz left the government.

On October 22, 2002, Meretz MK Uzi Even made history by becoming the first openly gay Member of Knesset, after Amnon Rubinstein retired. This created a vacancy and Even was next on the Meretz list. His term lasted less than three months, however, as the Knesset was dissolved in January, 2003. Even's entry to the Knesset was met by mixed reactions from the ultra-orthodox parties; Shas's Nissim Ze'ev was the harshest, saying Even "symbolized the bestialization of humanity," adding that he should be "hidden under the carpet" and banned from entering the Knesset.

For the 2003 elections, Meretz were joined by Roman Bronfman's Democratic Choice. However, the party shrank again, this time to just six seats. Sarid immediately took responsibility and resigned from leadership, though he did not retire from the Knesset and continued serving as an MK, before stepping down prior to the 2006 elections.

In December 2003, Meretz was disbanded in order to merge with Yossi Beilin's non-parliamentary Shahar (Hebrew: שח"ר) movement. The original name suggested for the new party was Ya'ad (Hebrew: יעד, Goal), but was not used because it sounded like the Russian word for poison ("yad"), and it was feared that it might alienate Israel's one million Russian-speaking voters (although there had been two parties previously in Israel using the name - Ya'ad and Ya'ad – Civil Rights Movement, the latter ironically a forerunner of Meretz, they both existed before large-scale immigration from the Soviet Union). Instead, the name Yachad (Hebrew: יח"ד) was chosen. As well as meaning "Together", it is also a Hebrew acronym for Social-Democratic Israel (Hebrew: ישראל חברתית דמוקרטית, Yisrael Hevratit Demokratit).

The new party was established in order to unite and resuscitate the Israeli Zionist peace camp, which had been soundly defeated in the 2003 elections (dropping from 56 Knesset members in 1992 to 24 in 2003) following the al-Aqsa Intifada. The party's purpose was to unite a variety of dovish Zionist movements with the dovish wing of the Labor Party. However, the efforts were largely unsuccessful as, except for the original Meretz, Shahar and Democratic Choice, no other movement joined the new party. It has suffered from declining popular interest in left-wing peace movements, as a result of the rise in Palestinian violence, and only 20,000 people are now registered members of the party, half the number who were prior to the 1999 party primaries.

In March 2004, Yossi Beilin was elected party leader, beating Ran Cohen, and started a two year term as the first chairman of Yachad. In July 2005 the party decided to change its name to Meretz-Yachad, because opinion polls revealed that the name Yachad was not recognisable to the Israeli public, and that they preferred the old name Meretz. The chairman Beilin opposed the motion to revert the name to Meretz and a compromise between the old and new names, Meretz-Yachad, was agreed upon.

However, in the 2006 election campaign the party dropped the Yachad part, running as just Meretz, under the slogan "Meretz on the left, the Human in the centre". Nevertheless, it failed to stop the party's decline, as they won just five seats, the lowest total in the party's history. In 2007, Tsvia Greenfeld, sixth on the party list, became the first ever female Ultra-orthodox Knesset member, following Yossi Beilin's decision to retire from politics.

In the party leadership contest in late 2007 Beilin withdrew his candidacy after it became clear that Haim Oron was leading in the polls. Oron went on to win the internal elections held on 18 March 2008 with 54.5% of the vote, beating Ran Cohen (27.1%) and Zehava Gal-On (18.1%) to become Meretz's new chairman.

On December 22, 2008, Meretz finalized its merger with Hatnua HaHadasha ("The New Movement") for the 2009 Israeli elections. The alliance failed miserably; with the left-wing bloc in general suffering a harsh blow in Israeli legislative elections in 2009.

Meretz-Yachad defines itself as a Zionist, Green, left-wing social democratic party. It has inherited Meretz's membership in the Socialist International.

It sees itself as the political representative of the Israeli Peace movement, in the Knesset - as well as municipal councils and other local political bodies.

In the international media it has been described as left-wing, social democratic, dovish, civil libertarian, and anti-occupation.

Meretz-Yachad's approach toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has abandoned the "securitist" approach of its predecessor Meretz and focused its criticism at the conduct of former PM Ariel Sharon and the government. The party was torn in whether to support Sharon's disengagement plan, though in November 2004, it announced that it would abstain in motions of no confidence in the Likud government in order to prevent the government from falling prior to the implementation of the plan. With the defection of Shinui from Ariel Sharon's government, Meretz-Yachad's decision helped Sharon to execute his plan.

A number of progressive Zionist organizations that share many of the ideas and ideals of Meretz-Yachad are affiliated with the Israel-based World Union of Meretz; this includes Meretz USA in the U.S. and the London-based Meretz UK, France's Cercle Bernard Lazare .... The World Union of Meretz has representation in a number of organizations, such as the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish National Fund.

Meretz USA has joined with other progressive Zionists in the 'States and Canada to form the Union of Progressive Zionists, a college student network, as well as the Jewish Academic Network for Israeli-Palestinian Peace.

Hashomer Hatzair, a progressive Zionist youth movement with branches in many countries, is informally associated with Meretz through its historic connection with Mapam.

To the top

Israeli legislative election, 2006

Elections for the 17th Knesset were held in Israel on 28 March 2006. The voting resulted in a plurality of seats for the then-new Kadima party, followed by the Labour Party, and a major loss for the Likud party.

After the election, the government was formed by the Kadima, Labour, Shas, and Gil parties, with the Yisrael Beiteinu party joining the government later. The Prime Minister was Ehud Olmert, leader of Kadima, who had been the acting prime minister going into the election.

In the 2003 elections, Likud, under the leadership of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, had a convincing win by Israeli standards, winning 38 seats in the 120-member Knesset (parliament), with Sharon perceived as tough anti-terrorist leader on the wings of his 2002 Operation Defensive Shield. Labour, led by Amram Mitzna under slogans for "disengagement" from Gaza, won only 19 seats and did not initially join the new government.

Following the 2003 elections Likud suffered severe divisions over several positions taken by Sharon, most notably his adoption of a plan to withdraw Israeli settlers and troops from the Gaza Strip. This was exactly the position taken by Labour and denounced as being defeatist by Sharon prior to the 2003 elections, so it caused tension within the Likud party and in January 2005 Shimon Peres led Labour into a coalition with Sharon to allow the Gaza withdrawal to proceed despite opposition from a majority of Likud members.

As of the fall of 2005, Peres's Labour Party was providing the votes necessary for the Likud-led 30th Government to maintain its majority support in the Knesset. In Labour's internal leadership election scheduled for early November, Amir Peretz campaigned for the party leadership on a platform that included withdrawing Labor from the Sharon-led coalition. Peretz narrowly defeated Peres in the leadership election on November 9, 2005, and two days later all Labor ministers resigned from the Cabinet and Labour withdrew its support for the Government, leaving it without majority support in the Knesset.

The impending elections raised the prospect of a leadership election within Likud, with former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu expected to challenge Sharon for the party leadership. In late November, Sharon and a number of other Likud ministers and Knesset members announced that they were leaving Likud to form a new, more centrist party, which was eventually named Kadima. The formation of Kadima turned the election into a three-way race among the new party, Labor and Likud, marking a shift from Israel's tradition of elections dominated by two major parties.

Although Kadima was formed primarily of former Likud members, Peres (having lost the Labor leadership election to Peretz) also announced his support for the new party, and later officially left Labor. Peres cited Sharon's leadership skills as a reason for his party switch.

Polls taken through the end of 2005 showed Sharon's Kadima Party enjoying a commanding lead over both Labor and Likud.

Sharon, as founder of Kadima and incumbent Prime Minister, was universally expected to lead the new party into the March 2006 election. However, on 4 January 2006, Sharon suffered a hemorrhagic stroke, leaving him in a coma. On 31 January 2006, Kadima submitted its list of candidates, with Sharon excluded from the list due to his inability to sign the necessary documents to be a candidate. Ehud Olmert who had become Acting Prime Minister and acting chairman of Kadima when Sharon became incapacitated, now officially became the new party's candidate for Prime Minister. Peres was placed second on Labor's list of candidates. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was placed third on the Kadima list, with the understanding that she would be the senior Vice Premier if Kadima formed the next government.

In the Shinui primaries, Tel Aviv council member Ron Levintal defeated Avraham Poraz for the number 2 spot. Poraz, a close ally of party leader Yosef Lapid, subsequently resigned from Shinui, as did most Shinui Knesset members, forming a breakaway party called Hetz (ha-Miflaga ha-Hilonit Tzionit or 'the Secular Zionist Party'). Lapid resigned as party leader on 25 January 2006, and Leventhal was subsequently elected the new party leader. Neither Shinui nor Hetz received sufficient votes to win any seats in the 17th Knesset. Shinui had won 15 seats in the 2003 election and was the third largest party in the 16th Knesset.

On 30 January 2006 the right-wing National Union (Halchud HaLeumi), a coalition of three small parties (Moledet, Tkuma, Tzionut Datit Leumit Mitchadeshet), submitted a joint list with the National Religious Party. The merged list is headed by Binyamin Elon. The largely Russian immigrant Israel Beytenu (Israel Our Home) party has separated from National Union and is running a separate list.

This separation occurred following polls that predicted that, when running separately, these two major rightist blocs would receive between 20 to 25 seats (in the previous elections, they had received only 7), and it turned out to be true: the National Union bloc received 9 seats and Israel Beytenu received 11.

Likud selected Netanyahu as its leader, over then-Defense Minister Silvan Shalom. At Netanyahu's insistence, Shalom and the other remaining Likud ministers resigned from the Olmert-led government in January 2006.

Polls conducted from January through March showed Kadima still enjoying a substantial lead, though somewhat reduced from polls taken under Sharon's leadership.

During the al-Aqsa Intifada, more than a thousand Israelis were killed in Palestinian militant attacks. Israel's security policy during that time was focused on arresting or killing members of the militant organizations, through frequent military excursions into the Palestinian territories and (somewhat controversially) targeted assassinations, and to curb the movement of suspected militants - especially would-be suicide bombers - through the use of checkpoints. This policy won the support of the Jewish mainstream, but elements in the Jewish left, as well as the vast majority of the Arab population, vehemently opposed what they saw as excessive response to the security threat. Some claimed that Israel's policy was in fact encouraging more violence from the Palestinian side. Despite the decrease in violence during 2005 and 2006, or perhaps because of it, popular support for the security policy remained high among the Israeli public, which continued to fear suicide bombings and Qassam rocket attacks.

During the 2006 electoral campaign, the center and right parties vowed to continue the relentless fight against the Palestinian militants. Even Labor, which was traditionally known for its dovish views, put "combating terrorism" at the top of its agenda on the Conflict. Opposition to the current security policy, especially the use of targeted assassinations and the existence of checkpoints on Palestinian soil, comes mainly from Jewish left parties such as Meretz and from the Arab parties.

In the wake of the disengagement plan, the political field in Israel split into two roughly distinct groups: those who are in favor of withdrawing from most or all of the West Bank (unofficially nicknamed "Blues"), and those who wish for that area to remain under Israeli control (so-called "Orange"). In particular, Ariel Sharon and his faction left Likud to form Kadima because of their support of ending Israeli control over the West Bank. However, the two groups are also divided internally as to what practical steps need to be taken during the next few years.

Since Israel's establishment, the political scene has been dominated by security and peace issues. The major parties were mainly divided by the different approaches with regard to the Israeli-Arab and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.

The 2006 elections mark the first time a major party - the Labor Party - has placed economic and social issues on top of its agenda. This is mainly attributed to Amir Peretz's surprise victory over Shimon Peres in the November 2005 Labour leadership election; Peretz had left the party a few years earlier to form the socialist One Nation, which had only recently merged into Labour.

In addition to Labor, the orthodox religious Shas, which has always claimed to champion the poor in Israeli society, also attacked Netanyahu's policies during the campaign, as did a number of small (and often new) socialist parties.

From 1948 to 2003, religious parties played a part in every coalition formed in Israel. Zionist religious parties focused on maintaining the balance between observants and seculars in issues such as education, Kashrut, keeping the Sabbath and matrimonial law, while Haredi parties demanded funds for religious scholars and the continued exemption of their followers from military service (decided on by David Ben Gurion in 1951.) All of this alienated many secular Israelis, who felt their personal freedoms were being infringed upon and that they were unfairly carrying most of the burden. This led to the rise of Shinui, which at the 2003 elections won 15 out of 120 seats and joined Ariel Sharon's coalition. Shinui failed in making significant changes to the status quo on religious issues, and quit the government in 2005 after Sharon decided to transfer funds to the orthodox United Torah Judaism party. An internal quarrel caused most Knesset members from Shinui to form a new party (Hetz); both parties ran in the 2006 elections, although neither of them received any mandates.

The various religious parties, both Zionist (National Religious Party) and Haredi (Shas, United Torah Judaism) strictly oppose these changes. They wish to see Israel's Jewish character strengthened through further enforcement of the Sabbath and changes in the educational system.

Israeli Arabs constitute roughly 20% of the population in Israel. Many Israeli Arab groups claim continued institutional and social discrimination against them in Israel. Because they are not Jews and many identify ethnically with Palestinians their identity often clashes with their citizenship in the Jewish state. There are large disparities in general living standard and education between Israeli Arabs and the non-Arab Israeli population; they also have a lower participation rate in the workforce. Discrimination and a lower proportion of females in the workforce are often cited as reasons for this. See Israeli Arab.

The Arab parties, the largest of which are the United Arab List, Balad and Hadash (a Jewish-Arab communist party, with mostly Arab composition and electorate), advocate abolition of all forms of ethnic inequality, and the establishment of a democratic bi-national state.

Elections to the Knesset allocate 120 seats by party-list proportional representation, using the d'Hondt method. The election threshold for the 2006 election was set at 2% (up from 1.5% in previous elections), which is a little over two seats.

After official results are published, the President of Israel delegates the task of forming a government to the Member of Knesset with the best chance of assembling a majority coalition (usually the leader of the largest party.) That designee has up to 42 days to negotiate with the different parties, and then present his government to the Knesset for a vote of confidence. Once the government is approved (by a vote of at least 61 members), he/she becomes Prime Minister.

Note: traditional left-right divisions in Israel are different than in most countries, being mostly based on the different positions with regard to security and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. For example, the left-wing Meretz-Yachad mainly advocates negotiations with the Palestinians along the lines of the Geneva Initiative, while the right-wing National Union is opposed to any territorial concessions, yet both parties have strong histories of tabling social/welfare laws.

Numbers in the table below are seats, out of a total of 120, as predicted by opinion polls prior to the election.

As the electoral threshold stands at 2%, it is impossible for a party to receive only one seat in the Knesset.

Note: Most Israeli pollsters lump the "Arab" parties together, so that the listed number is the total number of seats that the three main Arab lists (Raam, Balad, Hadash) are expected to obtain. In the event that one or more of the three lists does not pass the 2% threshold, the representation of these parties will be one to three fewer seats than listed by the polls.

1 National Union and Yisrael Beiteinu together have 7 seats.

1 14 Knesset members joined Kadima in November 2005, 13 of them from Likud. 2 One Nation (3 Knesset members) merged with Labour (19 Knesset members) in 2004. 3 Israel Ba-Aliya (2 Knesset members) merged with Likud (38 Knesset members) in 2003, 13 MKs split and joined Kadima in 2005. 4 Israel Beytenu (3 Knesset members) split from the National Union (7 Knesset members) in 2003. 5 National Religious Party (6 Knesset members) joined the National Union (4 Knesset members after the split 4) prior to the election. 6 9 Knesset members split from Shinui and joined Hetz prior to the elections. 7 Only 2 Knesset members were left from the original faction after the split6 prior to the elections.

The turnout was the lowest in Israeli legislative election history, 63.6% of eligible voters, compared to 68.9% in 2003 and 78.7% in 1999. The turnout of 62.5% in 2001 prime-ministerial election is the lowest in nationwide elections.

On 2 April both Gil and Meretz recommended to Katzav that Olmert become Prime Minister. The next day, at a joint appearance, Olmert and Peretz announced that Kadima and Labor would be coalition partners and that Peretz would advise the President to tap Olmert as Prime Minister.

On 6 April President Katzav formally asked Olmert to form a government officially making him Prime Minister-designate. A coalition government was formed consisting of Kadima, Labour, Shas and Gil. Olmert refused to accede to Peretz's demands for the Finance ministry, who was forced to accept the Defense ministry instead.

In October 2006 with the coalition shaken after the 2006 Lebanon War, Olmert brought the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu into government as well. However, they left the coalition in January 2008 in protest at peace talks with the Palestinian National Authority.

To the top