"All that is left": the demise of the Zionist Left parties, 1992-2009

This chapter provides both a description of and an explanation for the downfall of the Zionist Left. It shows that while there has been a decline in support for Labor and Meretz across all clusters from 1992 to 2009, the support was withdrawn for different reasons. The chapter argues that in 1992 the Labor party and Meretz pursued a successful platform that could be described as "security-peace-and-prosperity." It discusses the general shift of the Israeli public to the right accelerated since the outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada in 2000. The results of the 2009 general elections in Israel signaled the lowest point ever achieved by what are known as the Zionist Left parties, the Labor party and Meretz, which combined for only sixteen parliamentary seats. The peace-and-prosperity agenda was a product of its time—the global optimism of the early 1990s—with its peak during the Oslo period.