1992 Israeli legislative election

Elections for the 13th Knesset were held in Israel on 23 June 1992. The election resulted in the formation of a Labor government, led by Yitzhak Rabin, helped by the failure of several small right wing parties to pass the electoral threshold.^[1] Voter turnout was 77.4%.^[2]

Parliament factions

The table below lists the parliamentary factions represented in the 12th Knesset.

Name		Ideology	Symbol	Leader	1988 result		Seats at 1992 dissolution
Name		Ideology	Symbol	Leader	Votes (%)	Seats	Seats at 1992 dissolution
	Likud	National liberalism	מחל‎	Yitzhak Shamir	31.1%	40 / 120	38 / 120
	Labor^[a]	Social democracy	אמת‎	Yitzhak Rabin	30.0%	39 / 120	38 / 120
	Meretz	Social democracy Secularism	—^[b]	Shulamit Aloni Yair Tzaban Amnon Rubinstein	—	did not exist^[c]	10 / 120
	Shas	Religious conservatism Populism	שס‎	Aryeh Deri	4.7%	6 / 120	5 / 120
	Agudat Yisrael	Religious conservatism	ג‎	Moshe Ze'ev Feldman	4.5%	5 / 120	4 / 120
	Ratz	Social democracy Secularism	רצ‎	Shulamit Aloni	4.3%	5 / 120	no longer existed^[c]
	Mafdal	Religious Zionism	ב‎	Avner Shaki	3.9%	5 / 120	5 / 120
	Hadash	Communism Socialism	ו‎	Meir Vilner	3.7%	4 / 120	4 / 120
	Tehiya	Ultranationalism Revisionist Zionism	ת‎	Yuval Ne'eman Geula Cohen	3.1%	3 / 120	3 / 120
	Mapam	Labor Zionism Socialism	מפם‎	Yair Tzaban	2.5%	3 / 120	no longer existed^[c]
	New Liberal Party	Liberalism	—^[d]	Yitzhak Moda'i	—	did not exist^[e]	3 / 120
	Tzomet	Nationalism Agrarianism	ץ‎	Rafael Eitan	2.0%	2 / 120	2 / 120
	Moledet	Ultranationalism	ט‎	Rehavam Ze'evi	1.9%	2 / 120	2 / 120
	Shinui	Liberalism Centrism	הן‎	Amnon Rubinstein	1.7%	2 / 120	no longer existed^[c]
	Degel HaTorah	Religious conservatism	עץ‎	Avraham Ravitz	1.5%	2 / 120	2 / 120
	PLFP	Pro-peace	פ‎	Mohammed Miari	1.5%	1 / 120	1 / 120
	Mada	Israeli Arab Interests	עם‎	Abdulwahab Darawshe	1.2%	1 / 120	1 / 120
	Moria	Ultra-Orthodox interest	—	Yitzhak Peretz	—	did not exist^[f]	1 / 120
	Geulat Yisrael	Mizrahi ultra-Orthodox interest	—^[g]	Eliezer Mizrahi	—	did not exist^[h]	1 / 120

Results



Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Labor Party	906,810	34.65	44	+5
	Likud	651,229	24.89	32	−8
	Meretz	250,667	9.58	12	+2
	Tzomet	166,366	6.36	8	+6
	National Religious Party	129,663	4.95	6	+1
	Shas	129,347	4.94	6	0
	United Torah Judaism	86,167	3.29	4	−3
	Hadash	62,546	2.39	3	−1
	Moledet	62,269	2.38	3	+1
	Arab Democratic Party	40,788	1.56	2	+1
	Tehiya	31,957	1.22	0	−3
	Progressive List for Peace	24,181	0.92	0	−1
	New Liberal Party	16,669	0.64	0	New
	Geulat Yisrael	12,851	0.49	0	New
	Da	11,697	0.45	0	New
	Pensioners, Immigrants and Senior Citizens	8,327	0.32	0	New
	Movement for Mortgage Affected, Homeless and Demobilised Soldiers	5,962	0.23	0	0
	Pikanti	3,750	0.14	0	New
	Torah VeAretz	3,708	0.14	0	New
	On Wheels	3,355	0.13	0	New
	Women's Party	2,886	0.11	0	New
	Hatikva	2,053	0.08	0	New
	Natural Law Party	1,734	0.07	0	New
	Tali	1,336	0.05	0	New
	Tzipor	523	0.02	0	New
Total		2,616,841	100.00	120	0

Valid votes		2,616,841	99.20
Invalid/blank votes		21,102	0.80
Total votes		2,637,943	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		3,409,015	77.38
Source: IDI, Nohlen et al.

Aftermath

Labour's Yitzhak Rabin formed the twenty-fifth government on 13 July 1992, including Meretz and Shas in his coalition, which had 17 ministers. Hadash and the Arab Democratic Party also supported the government despite not being coalition members. Shas left the coalition in September 1993, and Yiud joined in January 1995.

Rabin's government advanced the peace process to unprecedented levels; the Oslo Accords were signed with Yasser Arafat's PLO in 1993 and the Israel–Jordan peace treaty in 1994. The government's willingness to make peace with Syria and concede the Golan Heights led to Avigdor Kahalani and Emanuel Zisman leaving the party to form the Third Way.

After Rabin's assassination on 4 November 1995, Shimon Peres took over as Prime Minister and formed a new government on 22 November 1995. His coalition was the same as before; Labor, Meretz and Yiud. Peres called early elections in 1996 in order to seek a mandate to continue the peace process,^[3] in which he lost.

The Knesset term saw several defections; two MKs left the Labor Party to establish the Third Way, whilst Nava Arad also left the party. Two MKs left Likud to establish Gesher, whilst Efraim Gur also left the party. Three MKs left Tzomet to establish Yiud; one MK then left Yiud to establish Atid. Yosef Azran left Shas. One MK left Moldet to establish Yamin Yisrael, whilst Yosef Ba-Gad also left the party. United Torah Judaism split into Agudat Yisrael (two seats) and Degel HaTorah (two seats).

Notes

^ The Israeli Labor Party faction was originally the Alignment faction, but by the time of the 1988 elections, the Alignment electoral alliance had no other member parties other than Labor itself. The parliamentary faction was renamed to reflect this on 7 October 1991.
^ Would use מרצ‎ as its symbol in the 1992 elections
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d On 9 March 1992, Ratz, Mapam, and Shinui agreed to run on a common list in the 1992 elections. To ensure this, their respective parliamentary factions all merged into one on the same day.
^ Would use קן‎ as its symbol in the 1992 elections
^ The New Liberal Party was formed on 15 March 1990 by five Likud defectors, formerly members of the (old) Liberal Party, who were dissatisifed with the Likud's transformation from an electoral alliance between Herut and the Liberal Party into a unitary party. Two of them, Yosef Goldberg and Avraham Sharir, later defected back to the Likud.
^ Yitzhak Peretz was elected as an MK for Shas, but defected to form his own faction on 25 December 1990. In the 1992 elections, he ran on the Agudat Yisrael list.
^ Would use קל‎ as its symbol in the 1992 elections
^ Eliezer Mizrahi was elected as an MK for Agudat Yisrael, but defected to form his own faction in 1990.

References

^ "The 1992 Knesset Elections Revisited" Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
^ Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I, p. 128 ISBN 0-19-924958-X
^ "Memory of Rabin likely to influence Israeli elections" CNN, 5 February 1996

External links

Historical overview of the Thirteenth Knesset Knesset website
Election results Knesset website

[Labor-3] The Israeli Labor Party faction was originally the Alignment faction, but by the time of the 1988 elections, the Alignment electoral alliance had no other member parties other than Labor itself. The parliamentary faction was renamed to reflect this on 7 October 1991.

[Meretz_symbol-4] Would use מרצ‎ as its symbol in the 1992 elections

[Meretz-5] On 9 March 1992, Ratz, Mapam, and Shinui agreed to run on a common list in the 1992 elections. To ensure this, their respective parliamentary factions all merged into one on the same day.

[NLP_symbol-6] Would use קן‎ as its symbol in the 1992 elections

[NLP-7] The New Liberal Party was formed on 15 March 1990 by five Likud defectors, formerly members of the (old) Liberal Party, who were dissatisifed with the Likud's transformation from an electoral alliance between Herut and the Liberal Party into a unitary party. Two of them, Yosef Goldberg and Avraham Sharir, later defected back to the Likud.

[Moria-8] Yitzhak Peretz was elected as an MK for Shas, but defected to form his own faction on 25 December 1990. In the 1992 elections, he ran on the Agudat Yisrael list.

[Geulat_Yisrael_symbol-9] Would use קל‎ as its symbol in the 1992 elections

[Geulat_Yisrael-10] Eliezer Mizrahi was elected as an MK for Agudat Yisrael, but defected to form his own faction in 1990.

[1] "The 1992 Knesset Elections Revisited" Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

[2] Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I, p. 128 ISBN 0-19-924958-X

[11] "Memory of Rabin likely to influence Israeli elections" CNN, 5 February 1996

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