From 44 to 4: The Electoral Decline of the Israeli Labor Party, 1992–2022

This chapter examines the patterns of decline in support for the Israeli Labor Party across social groups. The transformation of Labor from a ruling party into a small marginal party is one of the most conspicuous phenomena in the Israeli party system of the past 30 years (1992–2022). Based on official election results, we compare the overall nationwide change in Labor's support to its support across six social groups: Israeli Arabs, Former Soviet Union (FSU) immigrants, development towns, well-off central cities, kibbutzim and settlements in the Occupied Territories. Within the overarching trend of decline, some meaningful variations emerge. Among several groups, support for Labor experienced a sharp decline as early as the 1990s, while in others it occurred in later years. Furthermore, on occasions, when Labor succeeded in boosting its support among some electorates, it lost support among others. In these cases, the identity of the party leader was an important factor in explaining voting patterns among the different groups.