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
Rabin Medical Center in 1942 by a team of surgeons from the Beilinson Hospital as a satellite surgical unit. It was originally established in a 1-floor building, and named Beilinson II. It originally had 28 beds. Beilinson II was renamed HaSharon Hospital several years later. In 1982, Golda was appended to the hospital's name, after the late Israeli prime minister, Golda Meir. Golda-HaSharon Hospital currently has 400 beds. While physically separated, the two hospitals were officially merged in 1996 in a budget saving consolidation and the umbrella organization renamed the Rabin Medical Center, in memory of Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister who had