On July 13, 1992, the Rabin government was sworn in with the support of just 62 Knesset members. What helped the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was having five more Arab Knesset members to serve as a security net. Much like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the recent elections, Rabin came out the big winner that year with 44 seats, but he still had a hard time putting together a broad-based coalition. Eventually, he began his term as head of a left-ultra-Orthodox coalition that included both the Meretz and Shas parties. After approving the Oslo Accord in 1993, Shas left the coalition, but the government succeeded in changing its makeup and continued to function until Rabin’s assassination in 1995.
Rabin’s second government is still considered one of the best the country ever had in terms of its investments in education and social issues and in closing the gaps between the center of the country, development towns and the Arab sector. The main reason for this success was Rabin’s personal readiness to lead his second government. Yes, his government was susceptible to political extortion, and it was wasteful in terms of the number of ministers (22) and deputy ministers (13) it had, but Rabin was very capable of steering his coalition to remain on course. He served as both prime minister and defense minister, and was able to spearhead a bold move that led to a controversial diplomatic agreement, because he had an inner compass that made it quite clear to him where he wanted to lead the State of Israel.
