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Israel
The Decline of the Labor Party
Even before the October 1973 War, the Labor Party was hampered
by internal dissension, persistent allegations of corruption,
ambiguities and contradictions in its political platform, and
by the disaffection of Oriental Jews (see Oriental Jews , this
ch.). Labor's failure to prepare the country for the war further
alienated a large segment of the electorate.
Despite Labor's commitment to exchange occupied territories for
peace, successive Labor governments beginning soon after the June
1967 War established settlements in the territories and refrained
from dismantling illegal settlements, such as those established
in 1968 at Qiryat Arba in Hebron by Rabbi Moshe Levinger and others
set up by the extremist settler movement Gush Emunim. By 1976
more than thirty settlements had been established on the West
Bank.
Another contradiction in Labor's political platform concerned
Jerusalem. All Labor governments have proclaimed that Jerusalem
will always remain the undivided capital of Israel. In effect,
this stance precludes the peace for territories formula contained
in Resolution 242 because neither Jordan nor the Palestinians
would be likely to accept any agreement by which Jerusalem remained
in Israeli hands.
The post-1973 Labor Party estrangement from the Israeli public
intensified throughout 1976 as the party was hit with a barrage
of corruption charges that struck at the highest echelons. Rabin's
minister of housing, who was under investigation for alleged abuses
during his time as director general of the Histadrut Housing Authority,
committed suicide in January 1977. At the same time, the governor
of the Bank of Israel, who had been nominated by Rabin, was sentenced
to jail for taking bribes and evading taxes, and the director
general of the Ministry of Housing was apprehended in various
extortion schemes. Finally, and most egregious, Rabin himself
was caught lying about money illegally kept in a bank account
in the United States.
Israel's growing defense budget (about 35 to 40 percent of GNP),
along with rising world oil prices, also created chaos in the
Israeli economy. Inflation was running at 40 to 50 percent annually,
wages were falling, and citizen accumulation of so-called black
money (unreported income) was rampant. The worsening economic
situation led to greater income disparities between the Ashkenazim,
who dominated the higher echelons of government, the military,
and business, and the majority Oriental population, which was
primarily employed in low paying blue-collar jobs.
Data as of December 1988
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