| As the leader of the Zionism, the power that founded and built Israel, the Labor Party was once a dominant power of the country for five decades. But after that, the party surprisingly experienced a sudden decline and was reduced to the third largest party in Knesset. There are complicated reasons for that.The ideology conversion from Labor Zionism to Religious Zionism and Revisionist Zionism, the negative influence of a multi-party system and its development all restricted the power of the Labor Party and distributed its votes to other parties. Besides, the economic and social pluralism undermined socialism and collectivism, which led to the collapse of the Labor Party as the symbol of the country. Moreover, having outnumbered the Ashkenazi Jews, the Sephardic population became a majority and displayed tendencies to vote in large numbers against the Labor Party. What’s worse, the dovish foreign policies and the failure of Land for Peace policy disappointed Israeli people, shifting their support to hawkish parties. Also many intra-party problems should be taken into consideration in dealing with the decline of the party.In a word, the basic reason why the Israeli Labor Party declines is that Israel has undergone great economic, social and political changes, but the Labor party fails to adapt to the changes. And the decline of the party influences many spheres of the country. Up to now, the factors resulting in the decline of the party have remained unsettled, so it is hard for the Labor Party to revive. |