The Civil Right was the most divided sector in Zionist politics. Farmers and house-owners, Sephardi notables and central European liberals, artisans and merchants, were united in one front against socialism and for economic interests, but were split on every other issue. The weakness of the centre in Israeli politics has never been resolved; a political Right with a liberal world-view never evolved in Jewish society.

The factions in the centre were known as the Civil Right, although the origin of the name is not clear. Peretz Bernstein, one of its leaders, thought that the term was German in origin, deriving from the traditional distinction between the aristocracy and ordinary civilians. But in conceptual terms it is quite useful for distinguishing the centre from the radical Right, known as the national or Revisionist Right. The history of the Civil Right is distinguished by the extent of its economic power compared with its political weakness. Until the Second World War the private capital which flowed into Palestine was almost six times as great as the capital belonging to public funds. Control over public capital gave the Left unprecedented political advantage. Since private capital is directed to the most profitable use, this fact is of little significance at a time of struggle for national liberation. Most of the construction, commerce and industry of the Yishuv was in private hands, but inevitably the property owned by the Civil Right was fragmented, and the interests of the urban and rural sectors were not necessarily identical.