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Israel

إسرائيل ישראל

25 parties on file · 2 joint lists · 7 currently in government

Capital
Jerusalem (claimed) / Tel Aviv (de facto)
Population
9.8M
Independence
1948
Government
Parliamentary democracy (Jewish state per constitutional law)
Head of state
President (ceremonial)
Head of government
Prime Minister
Electoral system
Parliamentary proportional representation, 120 Knesset seats, 3.25% threshold

Founded as Jewish national home 1948 amid the Nakba. Left-dominant politics through 1977 (Labor Party); right-dominant since (Likud). Current 37th government is the most right-wing in Israeli history.

Timeline · 40 events

Region timeline →
2025
  • Confirmed Other June 13, 2025

    Israel-Iran 12-day war

    Israel launched a preemptive strike campaign against Iranian nuclear facilities and senior IRGC commanders on 13 June 2025; Iran responded with the largest ballistic-missile barrages on Israeli territory in history. The United States joined the campaign by bombing Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan enrichment sites on 21 June. A 12-day ceasefire brokered by the US ended the open conflict on 24 June, leaving Iran's enrichment program degraded but not destroyed and the regional security architecture reshaped.

  • Confirmed Party merged March 13, 2025

    New Hope agrees to merge back into Likud

    Having rejoined a Netanyahu-led government in 2024 — with Gideon Sa'ar serving as foreign minister — New Hope agreed in March 2025 to merge back into Likud and run on a joint list in the next election, dissolving the breakaway five years after Sa'ar founded it in opposition to Netanyahu.

2021
  • Confirmed Other June 13, 2021

    Mansour Abbas makes Ra'am the first Arab party in an Israeli government

    On 13 June 2021 Mansour Abbas led the Islamist Ra'am (United Arab List) into the Bennett–Lapid coalition — the first time an independent Arab party joined an Israeli governing coalition. Breaking with the Arab sector's tradition of non-participation, Abbas pursued an explicit strategy of "influence through participation," extracting budget commitments and recognition for Negev Bedouin communities in exchange for his bloc's pivotal votes.

  • Confirmed Coalition formed June 13, 2021

    Yisrael Beiteinu joins the Bennett–Lapid "change government"

    On 13 June 2021 Yisrael Beiteinu entered the eight-party Bennett–Lapid "change government" that ended Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year run as prime minister. Party leader Avigdor Lieberman took the finance ministry; the coalition pointedly excluded the ultra-Orthodox parties, and Lieberman used the post to push a secular-nationalist economic agenda and to pass the long-stalled state budget.

  • Confirmed Coalition formed June 13, 2021

    New Hope joins the Bennett–Lapid government; Sa'ar becomes justice minister

    New Hope entered the eight-party Bennett–Lapid coalition sworn in on 13 June 2021, taking three cabinet seats: Gideon Sa'ar as justice minister and deputy PM, Yifat Shasha-Biton at education, and Ze'ev Elkin at housing. From the justice ministry Sa'ar advanced measures including a push to bar an indicted MK from forming a government (aimed at Netanyahu) and changes to judicial appointments.

  • Confirmed Coalition formed June 13, 2021

    Bennett-Lapid "change government" formed

    An eight-party coalition — the first to include an Arab party (Ra'am) — was sworn in on 2021-06-13, briefly displacing Netanyahu after 12 years. Bennett served as PM until June 2022 when the rotation passed to Lapid; the government fell in November 2022.

Show 34 earlier events (2003–2024)
2024
  • Confirmed Other November 21, 2024

    ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant

    The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on 2024-11-21 for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel rejected the warrants; states-parties to the Rome Statute are formally obligated to arrest the named individuals on their territory.

  • Confirmed Other November 5, 2024

    Netanyahu fires Gallant and makes Likud loyalist Katz defense minister

    On 5 November 2024 Prime Minister Netanyahu dismissed Defense Minister Yoav Gallant — who cited clashes over Haredi conscription, hostage deals and a state inquiry into October 7 — and replaced him with Israel Katz, a veteran Likud serial-minister (and, since January 2024, foreign minister) with no senior command background. Gideon Sa'ar took the foreign ministry. The wartime removal of a general for a political loyalist underscored Netanyahu's consolidation of control over the security establishment.

  • Reported Other September 2024

    Levin stonewalls the Judicial Selection Committee in defiance of the High Court

    After the overhaul stalled, Levin for many months refused to convene the Judicial Selection Committee to fill Supreme Court vacancies — including the court presidency — seeking to leverage the appointments in his favour. The High Court of Justice ordered him to convene it, and his continued resistance became a running rule-of-law confrontation between an elected minister and the judiciary he sought to reshape.

  • Confirmed Party formed July 2024

    The Democrats formed from Labor–Meretz merger

    Israeli Labor Party and Meretz formally merged in July 2024 to form The Democrats, with Yair Golan elected leader. The merger consolidated the Zionist left into a single bloc after both parties struggled in recent elections.

  • Confirmed Coalition collapsed June 9, 2024

    National Unity exits emergency war cabinet

    Benny Gantz and the National Unity party withdrew from Israel's emergency wartime unity government, citing the absence of a post-war Gaza plan. The exit ended the unity arrangement formed after October 7, 2023.

  • Confirmed Other January 26, 2024

    ICJ provisional measures in South Africa v. Israel genocide case

    The International Court of Justice issued provisional measures in the South Africa v. Israel case on 2024-01-26, finding it plausible that Israeli operations in Gaza could be in breach of the Genocide Convention. The Court ordered Israel to take measures to prevent genocidal acts; full hearings on the merits are years away.

  • Reported Other 2024

    UTJ uses Finance Committee to restore subsidies for draft-age yeshiva men

    After the High Court ordered the state to stop funding yeshivas for draft-eligible students who fail to enlist, the Knesset Finance Committee — chaired by UTJ's Moshe Gafni — moved during 2024 to restore daycare and related subsidies for ultra-Orthodox families whose men do not perform military service, working to offset the financial pressure the court ruling placed on the Haredi sector.

2023
  • Confirmed Other October 30, 2023

    Smotrich freezes tax-revenue transfers to the Palestinian Authority

    As finance minister, on 30 October 2023 — early in the Gaza war — Bezalel Smotrich froze the transfer of clearance (tax) revenues Israel collects on the PA's behalf, part of a sustained drive to choke the Authority's finances while expanding West Bank settlement activity. The squeeze deepened the PA's fiscal crisis and drew warnings from international donors and even parts of Israel's own security establishment.

  • Confirmed Other October 7, 2023

    October 7 Hamas attack on Israel

    Hamas launched a coordinated assault from Gaza on Israeli border communities on 2023-10-07, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. The deadliest single day for Jews since the Holocaust. Triggered the ongoing Gaza war, the Israel-Hezbollah war, the Houthi Red Sea campaign, and the eventual fall of the Assad regime.

  • Confirmed Other July 24, 2023

    Israeli judicial overhaul first reading passes

    The Knesset passed the first major bill of the Netanyahu government's judicial overhaul on 2023-07-24 — the "reasonableness" amendment limiting Supreme Court review of executive decisions. Triggered the largest protest movement in Israeli history and was struck down by the Court in January 2024.

  • Confirmed Other February 2023

    Smotrich handed sweeping civilian control over the West Bank

    In February 2023, beyond the finance ministry, Bezalel Smotrich was made a minister inside the Defense Ministry with authority over much of COGAT and the Civil Administration — the bodies governing civilian affairs in Area C of the occupied West Bank — and a new Settlements Administration was created under him. Critics described it as transferring settlement planning and Palestinian civil affairs to a settler ideologue, a de facto step toward annexation and a bifurcated legal order.

  • Confirmed Other February 2023

    Cabinet gives Noam's Maoz authority over external school programming

    In early 2023 the cabinet approved giving Avi Maoz's new authority — with a budget of at least NIS 100 million — control over external (non-curricular) programming in Israeli schools, enabling it to flag principals running content on LGBTQ topics and sex education. Critics called it state-backed targeting of pluralist education; the move bears directly on civil-liberties and minority-rights conduct.

  • Confirmed Other January 18, 2023

    High Court disqualifies Shas leader Deri as minister; Netanyahu dismisses him

    On 18 January 2023 an expanded 11-justice panel of the High Court of Justice ruled 10–1 that Aryeh Deri's appointment as interior and health minister was "unreasonable in the extreme," citing his January 2022 plea bargain for tax offences (in which he had signalled he was leaving political life) and his prior convictions. Prime Minister Netanyahu dismissed Deri from the cabinet on 22 January 2023, though Deri remained Shas leader and a power-broker in the coalition.

  • Confirmed Other January 3, 2023

    Ben-Gvir's Temple Mount visit draws a UN Security Council session

    On 3 January 2023, days into his tenure, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir entered the Temple Mount / al-Aqsa compound — his first as minister — despite warnings it would inflame tensions. The visit drew condemnation from the US, EU, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE and prompted a UN Security Council session. With authority over the police that enforce the site's rules, Ben-Gvir signalled intent to erode the long-standing status quo barring Jewish prayer.

  • Confirmed Other January 1, 2023

    Tech-mogul ex-Jerusalem mayor Barkat becomes economy minister

    Nir Barkat — a high-tech multimillionaire who served two terms as mayor of Jerusalem (2008–2018), reshaping the city's economy while overseeing contentious planning in East Jerusalem — became minister of economy and industry for Likud on 1 January 2023. His tenure has drawn conflict-of-interest scrutiny over his retained business empire, and he has been floated as a future challenger to Netanyahu for the Likud leadership.

2022
  • Confirmed Other December 29, 2022

    Noam's Avi Maoz made deputy minister for "Jewish national identity"

    Under his coalition deal with Netanyahu, Avi Maoz — the sole MK of the anti-LGBT Noam party — was appointed deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Office and head of a new "Jewish national identity" authority when the 37th government was sworn in on 29 December 2022. Maoz advocates shutting Pride parades, restoring "mother/father" on state forms, and removing "progressive" school content.

  • Confirmed Coalition formed December 29, 2022

    Israel: Netanyahu's sixth government — the furthest-right coalition in Israeli history

    After his fifth electoral run in under four years, Benjamin Netanyahu returned to the prime minister's office at the head of a coalition that for the first time placed Itamar Ben-Gvir (national security) and Bezalel Smotrich (finance, plus settlement authority over the West Bank) in senior cabinet roles. The coalition's first major project — judicial overhaul — ignited the largest sustained protest movement in Israeli history, paused only by the 7 October 2023 attack.

  • Confirmed Coalition formed December 29, 2022

    Shas and UTJ join the 37th Netanyahu government

    The ultra-Orthodox parties Shas (11 seats) and United Torah Judaism (7 seats) entered Israel's 37th government, sworn in on 29 December 2022 — the most right-wing/religious coalition in the country's history, alongside Likud and Religious Zionism/Otzma Yehudit. Their coalition agreements secured large yeshiva and Haredi-sector budgets, the "Deri Law," and commitments on conscription and religion-state matters. UTJ's Yitzhak Goldknopf became housing minister and Shas's Deri was slated for interior/health.

  • Confirmed Other December 7, 2022

    Strock becomes Israel's first Settlements and National Missions minister

    In December 2022 Orit Strock — a leader of the Hebron settler community and founder of a "Judea and Samaria" rights NGO — became the first holder of the new Settlements and National Missions Ministry, with influence over settlement development and ideological "national mission" programming. In office she criticized security officials for labelling settler attacks on Palestinians "terrorism" and pressed to resettle Gaza, embodying the government's pro-settlement, hardline turn.

  • Confirmed Other November 1, 2022

    Meretz wiped out of the Knesset, falling below the threshold

    In the 1 November 2022 election Meretz won 3.16–3.18% of the vote — just under the 3.25% threshold — and lost all its seats for the first time since 1992, leaving the Knesset without an avowedly Zionist-left party and capping three decades of decline for the Israeli peace camp.

  • Confirmed Other June 30, 2022

    Bennett's diverse coalition collapses after a year

    Naftali Bennett — Israel's first kippah-wearing, religious-Zionist prime minister, who took office in June 2021 leading the smallest party (Yamina, 7 seats) in an unwieldy eight-party coalition spanning right, left and the first-ever Arab governing party — saw his government unravel under defections. The Knesset dissolved on 30 June 2022; Bennett did not seek re-election, handing the caretaker premiership to Yair Lapid and exiting politics.

2020
  • Confirmed Party formed December 8, 2020

    Gideon Sa'ar breaks from Likud to found New Hope

    On 8 December 2020 Gideon Sa'ar quit Likud — calling it "a tool for the personal interests of its leader" Benjamin Netanyahu — and founded New Hope, resigning his Knesset seat the next day. He was joined by Derekh Eretz MKs Hendel and Hauser and by Likud defectors including Ze'ev Elkin, building a right-wing but anti-Netanyahu party.

  • Confirmed Election held March 2, 2020

    As the Joint List's core, Hadash-Ta'al reaches a record 15 seats in 2020

    For the September 2019 and March 2020 elections Hadash-Ta'al rejoined the other Arab parties in the revived Joint List, which won 13 and then a record 15 seats on 2 March 2020 — the high-water mark of Arab political representation in the Knesset, with Ayman Odeh leading the third-largest bloc.

2019
  • Confirmed Party formed February 21, 2019

    Hadash and Ta'al form a joint list after the Joint List splinters

    On 21 February 2019, after the Joint List broke apart, the Arab-Jewish communist party Hadash (Ayman Odeh) and Ahmad Tibi's Ta'al formed the Hadash-Ta'al list, with Odeh at the top and Tibi second. It won six seats in the April 2019 election, sustaining Arab representation amid the fracturing of the unified slate.

2018
  • Confirmed Other November 14, 2018

    Lieberman resigns as defense minister over the Gaza ceasefire

    On 14 November 2018 Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman resigned as defense minister in protest at the Netanyahu government's ceasefire with Hamas after a major escalation in Gaza, calling it "capitulation to terror," and pulled his party from the coalition. The move stripped the government of its majority and set Israel on the path to the April 2019 election and the prolonged electoral deadlock that followed.

  • Confirmed Other November 5, 2018

    Regev advances the "Loyalty in Culture" bill to police the arts

    As culture minister, Miri Regev championed the "Loyalty in Culture" bill, which would let her ministry strip state funding from arts institutions deemed disloyal — for marking Independence Day as mourning, denying Israel as a "Jewish and democratic" state, or "incitement" — and shift control of arts budgets to the minister. It cleared a first Knesset reading in November 2018 amid an outcry that it would enshrine state censorship (a Holocaust survivor likened her to Hitler), then stalled and lapsed when the government fell. A signature press/cultural-freedom confrontation.

  • Confirmed Other May 14, 2018

    US embassy moved to Jerusalem

    The United States formally opened its embassy in Jerusalem on 2018-05-14, ending decades of US policy that kept the embassy in Tel Aviv pending a negotiated resolution of Jerusalem's status. Triggered Palestinian protests at the Gaza border with significant casualties.

2016
  • Confirmed Figure imprisoned February 15, 2016

    Former Kadima PM Ehud Olmert imprisoned for corruption

    Ehud Olmert, who led Kadima and served as prime minister 2006–2009, became the first Israeli head of government to be imprisoned when he entered Maasiyahu Prison on 15 February 2016 to serve a sentence for bribery (the Holyland affair) and obstruction of justice. He had resigned the premiership in 2008–09 as the corruption investigations mounted.

2015
  • Confirmed Legal status changed November 17, 2015

    Israel outlaws the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement

    On 17 November 2015 the Israeli cabinet outlawed the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement and 17 affiliated NGOs under the 1945 Emergency Regulations, alleging links to terrorism and incitement of the wave of stabbing and car-ramming attacks then under way. The bodies defending al-Aqsa (the Murabitat/Murabitun) were banned with it; Raed Salah was repeatedly prosecuted for incitement.

2006
  • Confirmed Election held March 28, 2006

    Kadima wins the 2006 election; Olmert forms a government

    After Sharon was incapacitated by a stroke in January 2006, Ehud Olmert led Kadima to victory in the 28 March 2006 election with 29 of 120 seats — the largest party — and formed a coalition. His government oversaw the 2006 Lebanon war, the 2008–09 Gaza war and the Annapolis peace talks.

2005
  • Confirmed Party formed November 24, 2005

    Sharon founds Kadima after the Gaza disengagement

    On 24 November 2005 Prime Minister Ariel Sharon quit Likud to found Kadima, a new centrist party, after the bruising fight over his August 2005 unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Kadima drew moderates from Likud and Labor around a platform of unilateral separation and pragmatic statecraft.

  • Confirmed Other August 15, 2005

    Sharon executes the unilateral disengagement from Gaza

    In August 2005 Prime Minister Ariel Sharon — long the patron of the settlement movement — carried out a unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip, evacuating all 21 Israeli settlements and roughly 8,500 settlers and withdrawing the army. The wrenching reversal split Likud and led Sharon to bolt and found Kadima months later; critics on the right never forgave him, while it left Gaza's status unresolved ahead of the 2007 Hamas takeover.

2004
  • Confirmed Other December 4, 2004

    Shinui dismissed from Sharon's government over Haredi budget funds

    In December 2004 Shinui was expelled from Sharon's cabinet after its MKs voted against the 2005 budget in protest at the restoration of ~290 million shekels for ultra-Orthodox education. The party then disintegrated and lost all 15 seats in 2006 — a sharp illustration of single-issue secularism's fragility.

2003
  • Confirmed Election held January 28, 2003

    Shinui surges to 15 seats on a secular anti-Haredi platform

    Led by journalist Tommy Lapid, the secular-liberal Shinui ("Change") won 15 seats in the 28 January 2003 election — the third-largest party — campaigning against ultra-Orthodox influence and state religious privilege. It joined Ariel Sharon's coalition with five ministries, in part to support the Gaza disengagement.

Marquee bills

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Compass · Israel

Country mean — Economic -0.7, Social +0.0

-10 -10 -5 -5 5 5 10 10 Libertarian · Statist Libertarian · Market Authority · Statist Authority · Market 7 parties 4 parties 4 parties 4 parties religious-jewish centroid · 5 parties secular-liberal centroid · 3 parties nationalist-ethnic centroid · 4 parties leftist-socdem centroid · 3 parties leftist-communist centroid · 2 parties islamist-sunni-electoral centroid · 2 parties ← Statist Market → Libertarian ↑ ↓ Authority Social ↕ Economic ↔ Religious Zionism Party (IL) · in government · Economic +3.5, Social -8.0 IL Religious Zionism Party Shas (IL) · in government · Economic -5.0, Social -8.5 IL Shas New Hope (IL) · in government · Economic +5.5, Social +2.0 IL New Hope Noam (IL) · in government · Economic +1.0, Social -9.0 IL Noam Yisrael Beiteinu (IL) · Economic +6.0, Social +4.0 IL Yisrael Beiteinu Ta'al (IL) · Economic -3.0, Social +4.0 IL Ta'al National Unity (IL) · Economic +3.0, Social +4.0 IL National Unity Meretz (IL) · Economic -3.0, Social +6.0 IL Meretz The Democrats (IL) · Economic -2.0, Social +8.0 IL The Democrats Balad (IL) · Economic -4.0, Social +5.0 IL Balad Israeli Labor Party (IL) · Economic -3.0, Social +5.8 IL Israeli Labor Party Hadash-Ta'al (IL) · Economic -6.0, Social +6.0 IL Hadash-Ta'al Likud (IL) · in government · Economic +6.0, Social -2.0 IL Likud Otzma Yehudit (IL) · in government · Economic +2.0, Social -8.0 IL Otzma Yehudit Northern Islamic Movement (IL) · outlawed · Economic -3.0, Social -7.0 IL Northern Islamic Movement United Torah Judaism (IL) · in government · Economic -5.0, Social -9.0 IL United Torah Judaism Hadash (IL) · Economic -8.0, Social +6.5 IL Hadash Ra'am (United Arab List) (IL) · Economic -2.0, Social -6.0 IL Ra'am (United Arab List) Yesh Atid (IL) · Economic +4.0, Social +7.0 IL Yesh Atid

Ringed dots are parties currently in government. See the full regional compass · hand-coded estimates; methodology.

Current leadership · grouped by party

132 political figures across 17 groups. Coalition parties first, then opposition, then unaffiliated.

Likud in government · 33 figures

Joint electoral lists

Parties

Source documents · 88

All docs →

Briefs from Israel

Hand-written political-science mini-papers involving Israel parties. 6 briefs on file.

How to cite

Each record carries a retrieval date because the dataset is live — individual entries update as verification deepens. Use the per-record citation when referencing this specific profile; use the dataset citation below when referencing the project as a whole.

In-text: (Gara, 2026)

APA 7Reference list · academic default
Gara, T. (2026). Israel [Country profile]. Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset. Retrieved August 5, 2026, from https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/c/IL
Chicago author-dateCommon in political-science journals
Gara, Tarek. 2026. "Israel." Country profile, Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset. Accessed August 5, 2026. https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/c/IL.
BibTeXFor LaTeX / Zotero / reference managers
@misc{tayyar-country-il,
  title     = {{Israel}},
  author    = {Gara, Tarek},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset},
  type      = {Country profile},
  url       = {https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/c/IL},
  urldate   = {2026-08-05},
  note      = {First-pass entry; second-pass external review planned before publication.}
}

If you're citing Tayyar as a project rather than this individual record.

APA 7Preprint
Gara, T. (2026). Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset [Preprint]. Retrieved August 5, 2026, from https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/paper
BibTeXPreprint
@unpublished{tayyar-preprint,
  title  = {{Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset}},
  author = {Gara, Tarek},
  year   = {2026},
  type   = {Preprint},
  url    = {https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/paper},
  urldate = {2026-08-05},
  note   = {Living document, regenerated from the live dataset on page load.}
}

First-pass entry; second-pass external review planned before publication.