ABSTRACT
The 2015 election campaign seemed to restore a pattern of an open competitive contest between two main governing alternatives, one from each side of the political map: the Likud in the center-right and the Zionist Camp in the center-left. Yet, despite the dynamics of a straightforward duel, the electoral performance of the two parties was far from impressive. With only one-quarter of the Knesset seats, Likud remained one of the weakest ruling parties among Western democracies today. The Labor Party, along with Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua (competing under the joint label Zionist Camp), increased their power by only three seats. Thus, the election results have failed to alter one of the basic features of the Israeli political system in the last two decades: the weakness of the large mainstream parties.
