Labor Party

The Labor Party is a major political party in Israel. It was formed through the merger of Mapai Party and Achdut Avodah in 1968, and later joined by Rafi. Pinhas Sapir was renowned as the economic boss of the newly formed Labor Party.¹

In 1968, Pinhas Sapir, renowned as the economic boss of the newly formed Labor Party, was a strong believer in government loans and investments to promote economic development. Dollars for Dimona never made much sense to him, as he believed an Israeli bomb would only lead to conflicts with the United States and a lessened flow of American contributions.¹

In 1984, neither Labor nor Likud achieved a majority in the national elections. A national unity coalition was negotiated, with Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Shamir sharing power: Peres would serve as prime minister and Shamir as foreign minister until September 1986, when they would trade jobs. The Labor Party's political advisers understood that Yitzhak Shamir's action of forwarding Jonathan Pollard's material to the Soviets, if exposed, would mean the end of the increasingly shaky Likud coalition and put the overall Israeli–United States relationship at risk.²