This is a 1961 election poster for the Mapam (the United Workers’ Party). Pictured in the poster is a house on fire with a cat jumping off the roof. Each element of the picture is labelled; the house (the Affair), the cat (Mapai) and the fire (Elections). The poster is printed in black, red, and white. The caption at the top of the poster is “The Cat on a Hot Roof” and underneath the illustration, “The house is burning, the roof is hot, this cat will not escape.” At the bottom of the poster are the words “Vote Mapam” with the Mapam ballot symbol, the Hebrew letter mem. The poster seems to be alluding to the popular 1955 play by American playwright Tennessee Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The Affair being referred to is the Lavon Affair, which was the political fallout following a failed covert operation that took place in Egypt during the summer of 1954. The illustration depicts the problems Mapai was facing due to its part in the Lavon Affair.
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Mapai – Mapai (an acronym for Mifleget Poalei Eretz Yisrael—The Workers Party of the Land of Israel) was the dominant political party in Israel until it ceased to exist as an individual party and merged with others to form the Labour party in 1968. Established in 1930, Mapai’s base of support was the Histadrut (Labour Union), the kibbutzim, and the moshavim. Mapai was a socialist-Zionist party and focused on meeting the needs of the working class including health care, employment, youth groups, and sport. David Ben-Gurion was Mapai’s most prominent figure, serving twice as prime minister (1948–1953 and 1955–1963). In later years, additional Mapai leaders held the position of prime minister: Moshe Sharett, Levi Eshkol, and Golda Meir. The party was seriously damaged by the Lavon Affair, a failed undercover operation that brought down the government in 1961. In 1968 Mapai joined with the parties Ahdut HaAvoda and Rafi to form the Labour party and led the Israeli government until Menachem Begin’s Likud party came to power in 1977. Mapai’s election symbol was the Hebrew letter aleph.
Lavon Affair – The Lavon Affair, also called the “Unfortunate Affair,” refers to a failed covert operation that took place in Egypt in the summer of 1954. It was named for Israeli Defence Minister Pinhas Lavon, who resigned as a consequence of the incident. A group of Egyptian Jews were recruited to plant bombs in various locations in Egypt. The bombs were to be detonated while the institutions were closed so as not to incur casualties. The plan was to blame the bombs on groups within Egypt in an attempt to show the instability of Egypt and convince the British government to keep its troops at the Suez Canal. While no civilians were injured in the operation, most of the operatives were arrested. Two of those arrested committed suicide in prison, and two others were executed after being convicted in a trial. Two were acquitted, and the rest of those arrested were found guilty and served long prison terms. An inquiry into the botched operation led to the resignation of Lavon. During the inquiry and for years after the question of who gave the order for the operation continued to be asked. In 1960 a commission was formed to review the evidence and to determine responsibility. The commission concluded that Lavon not only didn’t give the order but was, in fact, never informed of the operation. While many in the government accepted the commission’s conclusion, David Ben-Gurion continued to hold Lavon responsible.
Elections in Israel – Israel is a democratic country, and general elections for the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, take place, according to the law, once every four years. The nationwide elections are based on a multi-party, proportional representation system. The legal voting age in Israel is 18, and all Israeli citizens from sectors may vote and be elected. Using voting slips with the initials of the parties, citizens vote for their preferred party and not for individual candidates. The 120 seats in the Knesset are then assigned proportionally to the parties according to the number of votes received. After the elections, the president of Israel chooses the leader of the largest party or of the party that is most likely to form a viable coalition government. This leader then forms a government, the Knesset gives it a vote of confidence, and the leader then becomes prime minister.
1961 Israeli Elections – The elections for the 5th Knesset were held on August 15, 1961, only two years after the previous ones. The elections were held in the shadow of David Ben-Gurion’s resignation as prime minister in January 1961 following the Lavon Affair. Ben-Gurion was standing, once again, as the head of Mapai, and there was another attempt to use the slogan from the previous election – “Say Yes to the Old Man” – to convince the public to choose an experienced leader. However, this time, the message didn't work, as the party and Ben-Gurion’s image had been damaged due to the Lavon Affair and internal disputes. Mapai lost 10% of its power in the elections with the right-wing Herut and Liberal parties gaining many seats in the Knesset.
