1977 Israeli legislative election election saw the beginning of a period lasting almost two decades where the left- and right-wing blocs held roughly equal numbers of seats in the Knesset. Voter turnout was 79.2%. The Alignment was re-elected in December 1973, following the Yom Kippur War, but continued in-fighting and investigation into Israel's preparedness led to the resignations of Prime Minister Golda Meir and Minister of Defense, Moshe Dayan the following April. This led to a power struggle between former Chief of Staff and Ambassador to the United States Yitzhak Rabin and Transportation minister Shimon Peres. Rabin was elected by the party by a
Yitzhak Rafael the post in July 1963, serving until March 1965. He was re-elected in 1965 and 1969, and following Haim-Moshe Shapira's death in July 1970, became the leader of the NRP. He was re-elected again in 1973, and was appointed Minister of Religions by Golda Meir in March 1974. However, when Yitzhak Rabin formed a new government in June 1974 following Meir's resignation, the NRP were not included in the coalition and Rafael left the cabinet. When the party joined the coalition in October that year, Rafael was re-appointed Minister of Religions, serving until all NRP ministers were sacked in December