1996 Israeli general election

General elections were held in Israel on 29 May 1996. For the first time, the prime minister was elected on a separate ballot from the remaining members of the Knesset.

The elections for Prime Minister resulted in a surprise victory for Benjamin Netanyahu, by a margin of 29,457 votes, less than 1% of the total number of votes cast, and much smaller than the number of spoiled votes. This came after the initial exit polls had predicted a Shimon Peres win, spawning the phrase "went to sleep with Peres, woke up with Netanyahu". Although Peres lost the prime ministerial vote – his fourth and last defeat as Labor leader – Labor emerged as the largest party in the Knesset, winning two more seats than the Likud–Gesher–Tzomet alliance.

Peace process


On 13 September 1993, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) signed the Oslo Accords (a Declaration of Principles) on the South Lawn of the White House. The principles established objectives relating to a transfer of authority from Israel to an interim Palestinian authority, as a prelude to a final treaty establishing a Palestinian state.

On 25 July 1994, Jordan and Israel signed the Washington Declaration, which formally ended the state of war that had existed between them since 1948 and on 26 October the Israel–Jordan peace treaty, witnessed by U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat signed the Israeli–Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on 28 September 1995, in Washington. The agreement allowed the PLO leadership to relocate to the West Bank and Gaza Strip and granted autonomy to the Palestinians with talks to follow regarding final status. In return the Palestinians promised to abstain from use of terror and changed the Palestinian National Covenant, which had called for the expulsion of all Jews who migrated after 1917 and the elimination of Israel.

Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin
On 4 November 1995, at the end of a rally in support of the Oslo agreements held in the center of Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated. The murderer, Yigal Amir, a right-wing Jewish radical, was a law student at the Bar-Ilan University who fanatically opposed the Prime Minister's peace initiative, particularly the signing of the Oslo Accords. The assassination of Rabin was a shock to the Israeli public. Approximately 80 heads of state attended Rabin's funeral in Jerusalem.

Parliament factions
The table below lists the parliamentary factions represented in the 13th Knesset.

Campaign
After taking over from Yitzhak Rabin following his assassination, Peres decided to call early elections in order to give the government a mandate to advance the peace process.

During the campaign US president Bill Clinton attempted to influence the results of the election in favor of Peres saying that "I tried to do it in a way that didn't overtly involve me" because Peres was "more supportive of the peace process".

Netanyahu's campaign was helped by Australian mining magnate Joseph Gutnick, who donated over $1 million to Likud.

Nevertheless, Labour and Peres were comfortably ahead in the polls early in 1996, holding a lead of 20%. However, the country was hit by a spate of suicide attacks by Hamas including the Jerusalem bus 18 massacres and other attacks in Ashkelon and the Dizengoff Center, which killed 59 people and severely damaged Peres' election chances. Polls taken in mid-May showed Peres ahead by just 4-6%, whilst two days before the election his lead was down to 2%.

Several leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis, including Elazar Shach, called on their followers to vote for Netanyahu, whilst Leah Rabin, Yitzhak's widow, called on Israelis to vote for Peres so that her husband's death "would not be in vain." Netanyahu also warned that a Peres victory would lead to the division of Jerusalem in a final peace deal with the Palestinians.

Despite the national trauma which the assassination of Rabin caused, and although many blamed at the time the leaders of Israeli political right for the incitement that preceded the assassination, due to the series of suicide bombings carried out in Israel, and the failed military operation "Grapes of Wrath" conducted in Lebanon that caused many Lebanese civilian casualties, a significant change occurred in the position of the Israeli voters, which eventually resulted in 50.5% percent of voters supporting Netanyahu on election day. A significant number of Israeli Arabs boycotted the elections amidst rising Lebanese casualties, which became an advantage for Netanyahu as the vast majority of Arabs would have supported Peres but declined to vote. In addition, the intense campaign conducted by Netanyahu in contrast to Peres's campaign, as well as the support Netanyahu received at the last moment from the Chabad movement, titled the outcome in Netanyahu's favour.

Prime Minister
Netanyahu's win was bolstered by large support from the ultra-orthodox community, 91.2% of whom voted for him. Peres on the other hand, gained overwhelming support from the country's Arab community, 97.5% of which backed him.

Reactions

 * James A. Baker III, Secretary of State for U.S. President George H. W. Bush, worried that Netanyahu's hard-line coalition partners would be able to boss him around and prevent him from advancing the peace process, even though the Israeli people want the peace process to continue.
 * Warren Christopher, Secretary of State for U.S. President Bill Clinton, said that "President Clinton and [he] look forward to having a good working relationship with [Netanyahu]", and that it appeared "that Mr. Netanyahu was committed to pursuing the peace process".
 * U.S. President Bill Clinton called Netanyahu and congratulated him on his election victory. Clinton also told Arab countries not to "pre-judge" the new Netanyahu government. Clinton invited Netanyahu to visit the White House, and "[Clinton] affirmed the continued support of the United States for the people of Israel in their quest for peace with security" in a White House statement. The White House decided to consider Netanyahu's election win as a positive, despite the fact that Clinton supported Netanyahu's opponent Shimon Peres in this election.
 * Bob Dole, the 1996 Republican Presidential nominee, "said [that] he could "work with [Netanyahu]" and that he was confident "that Netanyahu was "committed to peace""
 * David Grossman, Israeli author, said that "Netanyahu's election shows that at least half of the people are not really mature enough for the peace process", since while "[t]hey want peace", "they're not willing to make the concessions it takes".
 * Yossi Klein Halevi, senior writer for the Jerusalem Report, warned Netanyahu against implementing a right-wing agenda and attempting to stop the peace process since Israel at that time was very divided and polarized, and most Israeli voters still supported the peace process.
 * Michael Lerner, editor and publisher of Tikkun, speculated that "[Netanyahu's election victory is] going to undermine the peace process severely", and that while Netanyahu will claim that he supports the peace process, he will "subtly underm[ine it]" whenever he will be able to.
 * Norman Podhoretz, editor of Commentary magazine, said that he didn't think that Netanyahu will be able to stop the peace process completely, but that he expects the Palestinian Authority to have a civil war with Hamas after the establishment of a Palestinian state, which would then be used by Syria and other hostile Arab states to intervene in "Palestine" and start a new war with Israel, in order "to make one last effort to wipe the Jewish state off the map".
 * Leah Rabin, widow of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, said that it is "very difficult to say what will be in the future", but that she "think[s] Netanyahu will try [to continue the peace process]" despite objections from hard-liners in his party.
 * Nadav Safran, professor emeritus at Harvard University, said that Netanyahu would take a much harder line with Syria and the Palestinians in negotiations, and that he will also attempt to slow down the peace process. He said that Netanyahu's hard-line positions could start another armed conflict with the Palestinians if Netanyahu does not show more flexibility in his positions later on.
 * Elie Wiesel, famous author and Holocaust survivor, said that he "[doesn't] think that [the impact of the elections on the peace process] will change much", since "[Netanyahu] has already said he will respect the achievements in negotiations", and since the peace process is irreversible. He also pointed out that while Netanyahu talked tough, so did Menachem Begin 20 years before that, and Begin ultimately signed a peace treaty with Egypt a few years after he was elected.

Aftermath
Despite winning the election for Prime Minister, Netanyahu's Likud (in an alliance with Gesher and Tzomet) lost the Knesset elections to Labour, winning only 32 seats compared to Labour's 34.

The objective of strengthening the position of Prime Minister by having separate elections was also a failure, as the election saw both major parties lose around ten seats compared to the 1992 election (Likud held only 24 of the 32 seats it won in its alliance) as many gave their Knesset votes to smaller parties; Labour received 818,570 votes to Peres' 1.47 million, (56%), whilst the Likud–Gesher–Tzomet alliance managed even less—767,178 compared to 1.50 million for Netanyahu (51%).

With only 32 seats, the Likud–Gesher–Tzomet alliance was, at the time, the smallest faction to lead a government in Israeli political history (the previous low had been Mapai's 40 seats in the 1955 election; since then, the 2006 elections saw Kadima emerge as the largest party with just 29 seats, and the 2009 election was won by Kadima with 28 seats, but Likud with 27 formed the government). This meant Netanyahu had to form a coalition with several smaller parties, including the National Religious Party, Yisrael BaAliyah the Third Way and the two ultra-orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism whose financial policies (generous child benefits and state funding for religious activities) were in direct opposition to his capitalistic outlook.

Netanyahu faced several issues; the left argued the peace process was advancing too slowly, but signing the Hebron Agreement and the Wye River Memorandum also caused him problems with the right-wing. Gesher broke away from the alliance with Likud and left the government coalition in January 1998. Netanyahu was forced to call early elections in 1999 due to problems passing the state budget.

14th Knesset
During the Knesset term several new parties were created by defecting MKs. Three MKs left the Labor Party to establish One Nation; Two MKs from the Labor Party and four from Likud left to form the Centre Party (Eliezer Sandberg later broke away from the Centre Party and formed HaTzeirim before joining Shinui, a new party created by Avraham Poraz after he left Meretz); three other Likud MKs left to establish Herut – The National Movement; three members of Gesher and two members of Tzomet also left alliance. Two MKs left the National Religious Party to establish Tkuma; two MKs left Yisrael BaAliyah to establish Aliyah; and Moshe Peled broke away from Tzomet and formed Mekhora before joining Moledet.

In 1999 David Zucker left Meretz and Emanuel Zisman left The Third Way to sit as independents.

Prior to the 1999 elections Balad left its alliance with Hadash and United Torah Judaism split into Agudat Yisrael (three seats) and Degel HaTorah (one seat)