Telem ( he, תל"ם, an acronym for ''Tenoa'a LeHithadshut Mamlakhtit'' (Hebrew: תנועה להתחדשות ממלכתית), lit., ''Movement for National Renewal'') was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

Background

Telem was formed on 19 May 1981 during the

ninth Knesset Legislative elections were held in Israel on 17 May 1977 to elect the ninth Knesset. For the first time in Israeli political history, the right wing, led by Likud, won a plurality of seats, ending almost 30 years of rule by the left-wing Alignme ...

by Moshe Dayan and two ex-Likud MKs. Dayan had been elected to the

Knesset The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (with ...

as an MK for the

Alignment Alignment may refer to: Archaeology * Alignment (archaeology), a co-linear arrangement of features or structures with external landmarks * Stone alignment, a linear arrangement of upright, parallel megalithic standing stones Biology * Structu ...

, which had lost the election for the first time in its history. Menachem Begin formed a coalition including his

Likud Likud ( he, הַלִּיכּוּד, HaLikud, The Consolidation), officially known as Likud – National Liberal Movement, is a major centre-right to right-wing political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin and Ariel Sha ...

party, the

National Religious Party The National Religious Party ( he, מִפְלָגָה דָּתִית לְאֻומִּית, ''Miflaga Datit Leumit'', commonly known in Israel by its Hebrew acronym Mafdal, ) was a political party in Israel representing the religious Zionist moveme ...

Agudat Israel Agudat Yisrael ( he, אֲגוּדָּת יִשְׂרָאֵל, lit., ''Union of Israel'', also transliterated ''Agudath Israel'', or, in Yiddish, ''Agudas Yisroel'') is a Haredi Jewish political party in Israel. It began as a political party re ...

, and

Dash The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

. However, he also invited Dayan to serve as

Minister of Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between co ...

. Despite being a member of the Alignment, Begin's political rivals, Dayan accepted the post, resulting in his expulsion from his own party. After sitting as an independent MK for some time, Dayan formed Telem in 1981, together with

Yigal Hurvitz Yigal Hurvitz ( he, יִגָּאֵל הורביץ; 15 October 1918 – 10 January 1994) was an Israeli politician who served as a government minister in the late 1970s and 1980s. Biography Hurvitz was born in Nahlat Yehuda (today part of Rishon ...

and

Zalman Shoval Zalman Shoval ( he, זלמן שובל, born 28 April 1930) is an Israeli banker, politician and diplomat. He is also active in Israel's economic life. He was the Israeli ambassador to the United States in the years 1990–1993 and 1998–2000, a ...

, who had previously broken away from

to form Rafi – National List. On 15 June 1981, they were joined by Shafik Assad, who had left Ahva (Assad had started the Knesset session as a member of Dash, then joined the Democratic Movement before moving to Ahva). The party won two seats in the 1981 elections, taken by Dayan and

Mordechai Ben-Porat Mordechai Ben-Porat ( he, מרדכי בן-פורת ar, مردخاي بن بورات; 12 September 1923 – 3 January 2022) was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset in two spells between 1965 until 1984, and as Minister wi ...

, and was invited to join the governing coalition, with Ben-Porat becoming Minister Without Portfolio. When Dayan died on 16 October 1981, he was replaced by Hurvitz. However, the party split up on 6 June 1983, when Ben-Porat created the

Movement for the Renewal of Social Zionism The Movement for the Renewal of Social Zionism ( he, תנועה להתחדשות ציונית חברתית, ''Tenoa'a LeHithadshut Tzionut Hevratit'') was a short-lived minor List of political parties in Israel, political party in Israel. Backgro ...

and Hurvitz reformed Rafi – National List, which he later renamed Ometz. A new party by the name of Telem was formed by ex-

Shas Shas ( he, ש״ס) is a Haredi religious political party in Israel. Founded in 1984 under the leadership of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a former Israeli Sephardi chief rabbi, who remained its spiritual leader until his death in October 2013, it primarily ...

MK Yosef Azran in the mid-1990s to fight the 1996 elections. However, it failed to cross the

electoral threshold The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of the primary vote that a candidate or political party requires to achieve before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can ...

, and subsequently disappeared. In 2019, a party founded by

Moshe Ya'alon Moshe "Bogie" Ya'alon ( he, משה יעלון; born Moshe Smilansky on 24 June 1950) is an Israeli politician and former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, who also served as Israel's Defense Minister under Benjamin Netanyahu from 2013 ...

was named Telem in memorial of the original Telem.

Leaders

Election results

List of Knesset members

External links

Party history
Knesset website {{Israeli political parties Defunct political parties in Israel Political parties established in 1981