Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ISRAEL'S PRIME MINISTERS
Name
Years in Offi ce
Political Party
David Ben-Gurion
May 1948 -January 1954
Mapai
Moshe Sharett
January 1954 -November 1955
Mapai
David Ben-Gurion
November 1955 -June 1963
Mapai
Levi Eshkol
June 1963 -February 1969
Mapai
Yigal Allon (interim)
February -March 1969
Labor (Alignment)
Golda Meir
March 1969 -June 1974
Labor (Alignment)
Yitzhak Rabin
June 1974 -June 1977
Labor (Alignment)
Menahem Begin
June 1977- October 1983
Likud
Yitzhak Shamir
October 1983 - September 1984
Likud
Shimon Peres
September 1984 - October 1986
Alignment
Yitzhak Shamir
October 1986 -July 1992
Likud
Yitzhak Rabin
July 1992 -November 1995
Labor
Shimon Peres (interim)
November 1995 -June 1996
Labor
Benjamin Netanyahu*
June 1996 -July 1999
Likud
Ehud Barak*
July 1999 -March 2001
Israel Ehad / Labor
Ariel Sharon*
March 2001-April 2006
Likud /Kadima
Ehud Olmert (interim)
April-May 2006
Kadima
Ehud Olmert
May 2006 -March 2009
Kadima
Benjamin Netanyahu
March 2009 -Present
Likud
* Elected as prime minister in direct elections.
with failing health led to his departure from offi ce. He was replaced by Yitzhak Shamir, only
two years younger, who was also a founding father of the country.
Following the long single-party dominance of Labor, Israel seemed to turn into a two-big-
party system, with Labor and Likud dominating. This system remained in place until 2003,
when Sharon split Likud, his new centrist Kadima Party drew leaders from both Labor and
Likud, and Kadima replaced Labor as the alternative leading party. That did not mean other
parties lost their importance and bargaining leverage, but no one party has been able to estab-
lish a long-term hegemony as Labor did during Israel's fi rst three decades.
After the 1984 election, this new bipolarity was underlined by the power-sharing arrange-
ment between Labor, led by Shimon Peres —who, like Rabin, was a member of the second
generation to become prime minister — and Yitzhak Shamir. Each man held the offi ce for
two years before the Likud Party regained power in 1988. Two features of this period were the
struggle for leadership within the Labor Party between Rabin and Peres, and Peres's persistent
and failed attempts to bring down the Shamir government.
