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]

Elections for the 13th Knesset
Israel
23 June 1992
Turnout77.4%
PartyLeader % Seats +/–
Labor Yitzhak Rabin 34.7% 44 +5
Likud Yitzhak Shamir 24.9% 32 -8
Meretz Shulamit Aloni 9.6% 12 +2
Tzomet Rafael Eitan 6.4% 8 +6
Mafdal Zvulun Hammer 5.0% 6 +1
Shas Aryeh Deri 4.9% 6 0
UTJ Avraham Yosef Shapira 3.3% 4 -3
Hadash Tawfiq Ziad 2.4% 3 -1
Moledet Rehavam Ze'evi 2.4% 3 +1
Mada Abdulwahab Darawshe 1.6% 2 +1
Prime Minister before Prime Minister after
Yitzhak Shamir Yitzhak Shamir
Likud		 Yitzhak Rabin
Labor Party		Yitzhak Rabin

Parliament factions
For a more comprehensive list, see List of political parties in Israel.

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

Name Ideology Symbol Leader 1988 result Seats at 1992
dissolution
Votes (%) Seats
Likud National liberalism מחל‎ Yitzhak Shamir 31.1%
40 / 120
38 / 120
Labor[lower-alpha 1] Social democracy אמת‎ Yitzhak Rabin 30.0%
39 / 120
38 / 120
Meretz Social democracy
Secularism		 —[lower-alpha 2] Shulamit Aloni
Yair Tzaban
Amnon Rubinstein		 — did not exist[lower-alpha 3]
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[lower-alpha 3]
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[lower-alpha 3]
New Liberal Party Liberalism —[lower-alpha 4] Yitzhak Moda'i — did not exist[lower-alpha 5]
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[lower-alpha 3]
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[lower-alpha 6]
1 / 120
Geulat Yisrael Mizrahi ultra-Orthodox interest —[lower-alpha 7] Eliezer Mizrahi — did not exist[lower-alpha 8]
1 / 120

Results
The Labor Party chairman Yitzhak Rabin. After winning the 1992 elections, Rabin managed to form the first Labor-led government in 6 years, supported by a coalition with Meretz, a left-wing party, and Shas, a Mizrahi ultra-orthodox religious party.
PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Labor Party906,81034.6544+5
Likud651,22924.8932−8
Meretz250,6679.5812+2
Tzomet166,3666.368+6
National Religious Party129,6634.956+1
Shas129,3474.9460
United Torah Judaism86,1673.294−3
Hadash62,5462.393−1
Moledet62,2692.383+1
Arab Democratic Party40,7881.562+1
Tehiya31,9571.220−3
Progressive List for Peace24,1810.920−1
New Liberal Party16,6690.640New
Geulat Yisrael12,8510.490New
Da11,6970.450New
Pensioners, Immigrants and Senior Citizens8,3270.320New
Movement for Mortgage Affected, Homeless and Demobilised Soldiers5,9620.2300
Pikanti3,7500.140New
Torah VeAretz3,7080.140New
On Wheels3,3550.130New
Women's Party2,8860.110New
Hatikva2,0530.080New
Natural Law Party1,7340.070New
Tali1,3360.050New
Tzipor5230.020New
Total2,616,841100.001200
Valid votes2,616,84199.20
Invalid/blank votes21,1020.80
Total votes2,637,943100.00
Registered voters/turnout3,409,01577.38
Source: IDI, Nohlen et al.

Aftermath
See also: List of members of the thirteenth Knesset

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).

See also

Notes
  1. 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.
  2. Would use מרצ‎ as its symbol in the 1992 elections
  3. 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.
  4. Would use קן‎ as its symbol in the 1992 elections
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. Would use קל‎ as its symbol in the 1992 elections
  8. Eliezer Mizrahi was elected as an MK for Agudat Yisrael, but defected to form his own faction in 1990.

References
  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
  3. "Memory of Rabin likely to influence Israeli elections" CNN, 5 February 1996
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