The Po'alei Eretz Yisrael party (Mapai), which dominated Israeli politics, may well have been the most constructive and dynamic social-democratic party of the twentieth century. From the 1930s it undertook to conduct Zionist diplomacy, displaying a delicate political realism. Underlying this realism was the multiplicity of ideological trends within the party, which was, in effect, a federation of factions. This endowed it with the dual virtues of ideological pluralism and pragmatism. The fact that political realism evolved from socialist thinking was one of the most dramatic developments in the political thinking and action of Zionism and Israeli society. Mapai was the first socialist party in the Yishuv to abandon ideology as the criterion by which political views were assessed and international reality measured. While this evolved gradually, never obtaining a general consensus, internal dissension between the factions that comprised Mapai prevented the adoption of a radical platform.

When it came to ends and means, Mapai combined realism with simple common sense, and did not recoil – as the social democrats of Europe did – from a policy which expressed itself in terms of power and advocating national interests. Its political programme was based on an incrementalist approach, combining the gradual accumulation of power with delaying the clash with the British and the Arabs for as long as possible. Initially, the Yishuv was obliged to adopt this approach because of its weakness, but it was amazingly well suited to the sceptical, even pessimistic, outlook of the Labour Party leaders, alongside a deep-seated belief in the Zionist vision.