February 1977 Israeli Labor Party leadership election
The February 1977 Israeli Labor Party leadership election was held on 23 February 1977. It saw Yitzhak Rabin re-elected as the party's leader. Rabin defeated Shimon Peres. It was the second of four leadership contests in which Rabin and Peres faced each other (after the 1974 and followed by the 1980, and 1992 leadership elections). It had been anticipated that the winner of this leadership election would lead the Israeli Labor Party into the 1977 Knesset election. However, Rabin ultimately announced his resignation before this election, and Peres was instead selected  in an April vote held by the Israeli Labor Party's Central Committee to lead the party into that election. Background. The race came at a moment where Labor was facing the prospect of seeing its 28-consecutive years of government leadership end, with the right-wing Likud bloc and the centrist Democratic Movement for Change being seen as cutting into the Labor Party's support for the upcoming 1977 Knesset election. Campaign. The race was a close battle between the incumbent Rabin and Peres, who had faced each other for leadership in the preceding 1974 leadership election. Rabin and  Peres held little policy difference. Peres was seen as slightly to the right of Rabin on domestic matters. Rabin argued to the electorate that replacing him would divide the party and harm its image, and painted an image of himself as a positive leader for the nation. Peres, on the other hand, argued to the elecotrate that the Labor Party needed to satfisfy the nation's desire for change by choosing a new leader for itself. Rabin received support from most of his cabinet, as well as Golda Meir, his predecessor as party leader and prime minister. The day before  the vote, Rabin pledged to renew efforts to reach a peace agreement with the Arabs. Voting procedure. The election's electorate was 3,000 delegates to the party's convention, This was the first time that the party selected its leader by a vote of convention delegates, having previously held leadership elections through either a vote by the party's Central Committee or other party agencies. Ahead of the vote, the result leadership election was seen as uncertain in outcome, a departure from previous leadership elections, which were largely a ratification of the already-chosen selection of party bosses. Results. February