ABSTRACT
The February 2009 elections were the seventh held in Israel since 1992. The 1992 elections brought victory to the left wing, which attained a one-seat majority in the Knesset. This allowed Yitzhak Rabin to set up a government consisting of Labor and Meretz, with outside support from the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (DFPE) and the Democratic Arab Party (DAP). Three-and-a-half years later, after Rabin’s assassination, and because of Shimon Peres’ desire for a mandate of his own, the 1996 elections for the fourteenth Knesset were held. This time the right wing challenger, Netanyahu, eked out a narrow victory and became the tenth Prime Minister of Israel. Netanyahu’s tenure was marked by many power struggles and failures on both the external and domestic fronts. These forced him to advance the elections and face the Labor candidate, Barak, in a race for the fifteenth Knesset and the office of Prime Minister in May 1999. This time, Netanyahu lost to Barak, who took 56 percent of the vote. Netanyahu resigned from the Knesset after publication of the first results. Barak, in turn, called for a special election for Prime Minister in February 2001, after only a year-and-a-half in office. In this election, Barak lost to Sharon who became Israeli Prime Minister until December 2005. Then, on the eve of preparation for the March 2006 election, Sharon suffered a stroke. He was succeeded as the leader of the newly formed party, “Kadima,” by MK Ehut Olmert. After the 2006 general election, Olmert become Prime Minister following his success in establishing a coalition between Kadima, Labor and the religious parties. In 2008, Olmert resigned, his successor in leading the Kadima party, Tzipi Livni, failed in her efforts to create a new coalition, due to huge financial and political demands raised by the SHAS party on one side and Livni’s refusal to negotiate with the Arab-Palestinian parties on the other side. Israel then called for new elections in February 2009.
