The decision to call an early election caught the Israeli left in one of the most difficult situations it has ever faced. The historic sociopolitical movement, for decades the largest one in the country, found that it had lost most of its supporters.
After many years in which the left took no part in government, the decision to join the coalition in May 2021 took a steep toll on Meretz and Labor. Both were forced to make major ideological concessions because the other parties that formed the coalition identified with the ideological right. Furthermore, they were sitting in a coalition in which the office of prime minister was held, at least temporarily, by the leader of one of those parties, Naftali Bennett of Yamina.
