Rafi

Rafi (an acronym for the Israel Workers' List) was a new political party created by David Ben-Gurion in June 1965, after he dramatically resigned from the Mapai Party. He was joined by Shimon Peres, who became Rafi's power broker, and Moshe Dayan. Ben-Gurion's hope was that Rafi could capture a significant number of seats in the Knesset and emerge as a major power broker in Israeli politics.¹

Rafi became an opposition party, playing a role traditionally belonging to right-wing groups. While Ben-Gurion's immediate reason for splitting with Mapai leadership was his continued anger over the Lavon Affair, the Rafi Party, under Peres's leadership, advocated for a more aggressive position across defense issues, particularly on nuclear weapons. Ernst David Bergmann was another founding member of Rafi and continued to influence Ben-Gurion regarding the dangers of not initiating the production of a nuclear arsenal.¹

The issue of nuclear weapons emerged as a dominant one in the 1965 elections, often discussed in coded language in Israeli newspapers. Rafi leaders criticized Levi Eshkol's "big mistake," which was understood by many inside Israel as referring to Eshkol's hesitations about opening a nuclear weapons assembly line at Dimona.¹

However, Rafi and Ben-Gurion were disappointed by the election results, winning only ten seats in the Knesset, which was insufficient to provide Ben-Gurion with a power base. The election was interpreted as a brutal referendum on his dream of returning to power and marked the end of his role in the public policy of Israel.¹