Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2025, Dan Code: 31-7294, 296 pages.

THE LABOR PARTY ON THE ROAD TO THE TENTH KNESSET ELECTIONS, 1977-1981 [HEBREW]

The book, “After ’77, The Labor Party Between Political Rivalry, Ethnicity, and Violence, on the Road to the Tenth Knesset Elections, 1977-1981”, was published by Hakibbutz Hameuchad. It continues Dr. Eldar’s study of the history of Israel’s Labor Party following the 1977 Knesset election—the most turbulent, violent, and dramatic Israel had ever seen. I examine how the Labor Party (then known as the Alignment) contended with the loss of power and hegemony. Did its leaders conduct true soul-searching and shape a vision for the future? How did they respond to claims by Mizrahi Jews of discrimination and patronization, and did they neglect their natural voting public—the workers? Did they fail to recognize the importance of  the 1979 Israel–Egypt peace agreement, and were the seeds of Israel’s political-cultural divide and the decline of the Labor Party planted then? The book addresses these questions and others, on the basis of a close reading of the period’s events and listening to their overt and covert echoes. After the 1977 election, the intra-Israeli war between two political cultures and two publics—the liberal and the traditional—began to heat up, until some even warned of a civil war. In this book I trace the events through many archival documents revealed here for the first time and through the press of the period, weaving them into a picture of a defining moment in Israeli politics and history.

For further information see the publisher’s link below:
https://www.kibutz-poalim.co.il/%D7%90%D7%97%D7%A8%D7%9977?srsltid=AfmBOor5CKYXhogpiK0r0I8ZqrlVGZmT62bOJMvvMPdJlBpABWlUyYA_

Eran Eldar is assistant visiting professor at Tulane University.