1999 Israeli general election

Early general elections for both the Prime Minister and the <a href="/facts/Knesset/vNAUyDAu">Knesset</a> were held in <a href="/facts/Israel/dEe3IcaY">Israel</a> on 17 May 1999 following a vote of no confidence in the government; the incumbent Likud Prime Minister <a href="/facts/Benjamin_Netanyahu/581DW7MB">Benjamin Netanyahu</a>, ran for re-election.
The elections were only the second time in Israeli history that the prime minister had been directly elected; the first such election <a href="/facts/1996_Israeli_prime_ministerial_election/7n11Stk6">in 1996</a> had been an extremely tight contest between <a href="/facts/Benjamin_Netanyahu/581DW7MB">Benjamin Netanyahu</a> of <a href="/facts/Likud/sXEchBMf">Likud</a> and <a href="/facts/Shimon_Peres/76kA3azd">Shimon Peres</a> of <a href="/facts/Israeli_Labor_Party/IPRaxRwR">Labor</a>, with Netanyahu winning by just 29,000 votes.
Labor leader <a href="/facts/Ehud_Barak/pWDtBRQ6">Ehud Barak</a>, promising peace talks with the Palestinians and <a href="/facts/Israeli_occupation_of_Southern_Lebanon/gDwQdbHm">withdrawal from Lebanon</a> by July 2000, was elected Prime Minister with 56% of the vote.

1999 Israeli general election open-in-new

1999 Israeli general election