MAPAI VS MAPAM

For a long time in Israeli politics, Mapai and Mapam parties dominated the scene being two of the most popular parties around. The most common attribute that make these two parties similar, apart from the near similarity of their names, is their perception towards the Arab influence on the Israeli politics. Basing from the historic events in the Israeli calendar from the 1947 onwards, the two parties have almost been neck to neck in fighting for support from the Jewish Israelis.

Following the UN’s resolution to set up an Israeli state on November 29th of 1947, the Mapai and Mapam parties became actively involved in the shaping of the relationship between the Jewish and the remaining Arab population within the newly defined Israeli state boundaries. At this time however, the Mapam party did not have a wide presence on the ground. The merger, of Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party and the Ahdut HaAvoda Poale Zion Movement in January 1948, gave birth to the Mapam party. Although there was a slight difference in the perceptions of the two parties regarding this matter, the bottom line was the fact that they both favored the exodus of the Arabs from within the new states’ territorial boundaries and they also became the two most popular parties in the new state.

From this fact, it is true that the Mapai party was much older than the Mapam having been founded in 1930 long before the definition of the Israeli state boundaries. Even at that early time when the party was founded, its foundation was quite similar to that of the Mapam party since it also came to being as a result of a merger between two movements; the Ahdut HaAvoda and the Hapoel Hatzair movements.

Other than having a common goal of trying to get to the leadership of the country, the two parties were based on different ideologies with the Mapam pursuing the left wing ideology while the Mapai party was inclined to the Labor Zionism ideologies. A short summary of the two parties in comparison would include the following

Summary:
1. While the Mapam party was founded in 1948, its other counterpart   the  Mapai party was founded much earlier in 1930
2. While Mapai is based on a labor Zionist ideology, Mapam is a leftist movement
3.Mapam was dissolved recently in 1997; Mapai was dissolved much earlier in 1968.
4.Both parties however went into mergers with the Ahdut HaAvoda party at different times in their histories.

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