[1] However, Rabin ultimately announced his resignation before the Knesset election, and Peres was instead selected in an April vote held by the Israeli Labor Party's Central Committee to lead the party into that election.

[2] The race came at a moment when Labor was facing the prospect of seeing its 28-consecutive years of government leadership end, with the right-wing Likud bloc and the centrist Democratic Movement for Change being seen as cutting into the Labor Party's support for the upcoming 1977 Knesset election.

Peres, on the other hand, argued to the electorate that the Labor Party needed to satisfy the nation's desire for change by choosing a new leader for itself.

[1] Rabin received support from most of his cabinet, as well as Golda Meir, his predecessor as party leader and prime minister.

[1] The day before the vote, Rabin pledged to renew efforts to reach a peace agreement with the Arabs.