Sharon's party), the National Religious Party and Agudat Israel. Much of Dash's success came at the expense of the Labor Party, with which it competed for the votes of mainly Ashkenazi higher-income and better-educated citizens. This had the effect of guaranteeing Likud's first victory. The party was invited into the coalition in November 1977, five months after the Knesset term had started. The party picked up several ministerial portfolios - Meir Amit was made Minister of Transportation and Minister of Communications, Shmuel Tamir became Minister of Justice and Yadin was named as Deputy Prime Minister. However, the fact that the party did not control the balance of power led to internal disagreements over its role. The party began to disintegrate, finally splitting in three on 14 September 1978, with seven MKs breaking away to reform Shinui, another seven founding the Democratic Movement and Assaf Yaguri creating Ya'ad. Shinui (including Amit) and Ya'ad left the coalition, whilst the Democratic Movement, which included Tamir and Yadin, remained in the government. Nonetheless, even the new parties were not stable, with the Democratic Movement also crumbling. In 1980, three of its seven members left to found Ahva and Mordechai Elgrably quit the party to sit as an independent (he later joined Equality in Israel – Panthers to create the Unity Party). Four months before the 1981 elections the party folded, with Tamir, Yadin, and Binyamin Halevi sitting as independents for the rest of the Knesset term. Tamir lost his ministerial position in 1980, though Yadin remained Deputy PM. Ahva also followed the breakup pattern, losing two of its three MKs before the Knesset term ended. Further changes occurred when two Shinui MKs defected to the Alignment and two of the three Ahva MKs left the party. Aftermath The only long-lasting faction of the collapse was Shinui, which won seats in the 1981 elections, the only party emerging from Dash to do so. It merged with Mapam and Ratz to form Meretz in 1992, before breaking away again under Avraham Poraz in the mid-1990s during the 14th Knesset. Shinui met a similar fate to its predecessor. In the 2003 elections it won 15 seats, making it the third-largest party after Likud and Labour. The party joined Ariel Sharon's coalition, but left in late 2005 after disagreements over the budget. Before the 2006 elections it split into three after most of its MKs were defeated in