Tzomet ( he, צוֹמֶת, lit., ''Crossroads'') is a small,
right-wing
Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authori ...
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 po ...
in
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 ...
.
History
The party was founded by General
Rafael Eitan
Rafael "Raful" Eitan ( he, רפאל "רפול" איתן, born 11 January 1929 – 23 November 2004) was an Israeli general, former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (Ramatkal) and later a politician, a Knesset member, and government ...
in 1983, after his retirement from the position of chief-of-staff in 1982. He headed it throughout its existence, and modeled it in his spirit as a secular, right-wing party with a strong agricultural side. Many of Tzomet's members and MKs were neighbors of Eitan in
Tel Adashim
Tel Adashim ( he, תֵּל עֲדָשִׁים, ''lit.'' Lentils Hill) is a moshav in northern Israel. Located between Nazareth and Afula, it falls under the jurisdiction of Jezreel Valley Regional Council.[moshav
A moshav ( he, מוֹשָׁב, plural ', lit. ''settlement, village'') is a type of Israeli town or settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists between 1904 an ...]
). Tzomet ran for the
1984 elections in a joint list with the
Tehiya
Tehiya ( he, תחיה, ''Revival''), originally known as Banai (Hebrew: , an acronym for ''Land of Israel Loyalists' Alliance'' (Hebrew: )), then Tehiya-Bnai (Hebrew: ), was an ultranationalist political party in Israel. The party existed from ...
party, and Eitan was its only member of 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 th ...
. Tzomet and the Tehiya parted way in 1987, and Tzomet ran independently in the
1988 elections, winning two seats.
The party joined
Yitzhak Shamir
Yitzhak Shamir ( he, יצחק שמיר, ; born Yitzhak Yezernitsky; October 22, 1915 – June 30, 2012) was an Israeli politician and the seventh Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms, 1983–1984 and 1986–1992. Before the establishment ...
's government in 1990, and Eitan was appointed
Minister of Agriculture
An agriculture ministry (also called an) agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister ...
. However, the party left the coalition in December 1991 in protest at Shamir's participation in the
Madrid Conference
The Madrid Conference of 1991 was a peace conference, held from 30 October to 1 November 1991 in Madrid, hosted by Spain and co-sponsored by the United States and the Soviet Union. It was an attempt by the international community to revive the ...
.
In the
1992 elections, Tzomet rode a wave of secularist sentiment, gaining the support of many young Israelis, leading to a surprising result of eight seats.
Despite Tzomet's success it was not included in
Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak Rabin (; he, יִצְחָק רַבִּין, ; 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77, and from 1992 until h ...
's left-wing coalition. The party's surprising success was also its downfall. None of the new MKs had any political experience, and most were completely unknown. Due to Raful's position in his party, the party was jokingly described as "Raful and the
seven dwarfs". Allegations of tyrannical behavior by Raful were raised, and in February 1992, three members:
Gonen Segev,
Esther Salmovitz, and
Alex Goldfarb—left and founded the
Yiud party (which then also splintered into
Atid).
The three left the party because Segev was offered the position of Minister of Energy by
Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak Rabin (; he, יִצְחָק רַבִּין, ; 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77, and from 1992 until h ...
if he voted in favour of the
Oslo Accords
The Oslo Accords are a pair of agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993; , which Tzomet opposed, and which would not have passed without his vote.
The splintering and infighting reduced the popularity of the party, despite this, ahead of the
1996 elections, Eitan became known as a potential candidate for PM. In the end Tzomet chose to run in a joint list with the
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 Sharo ...
and
Gesher under the name "
National Camp List". Tzomet was ensured several relatively high places in the combined list, partly as a reward for the withdrawal of Eitan as prime minister candidate, as the Likud feared that he would act as a spoiler for their candidate,
Benjamin Netanyahu. The 1996 elections were the first Israeli elections to feature a double vote: one for the Knesset, and one
direct vote for the prime minister. As part of the joint list, Tzomet managed to get all five of its Knesset members back into the Knesset. However, over the course of the next few years, Tzomet continued to splinter:
Pini Badash Pini may refer to:
People Surname
*Anthony Pini (Carlos Antonio Pini; 1902–1989), Argentinian cellist, soloist, orchestral section leader and chamber musician
* Antonio Pini-Corsi (1858(?)–1918), Italian operatic baritone
* Carolina Pini ( ...
left to run in municipal politics,
Moshe Peled broke away to form his own
Mekhora
Mekhora ( he, מְכוֹרָה, ''lit.'' Homeland) is an Israeli settlement organized as a moshav in the West Bank. It was built on lands confiscated by the Israel Defense Forces from the Palestinian villages of Al-Jiftlik, Beit Dajan and Beit ...
faction before joining
Moledet
Moledet ( he, מולדת, ''Homeland'') was a minor right-wing political party in Israel.
History
Moledet was established by Rehavam Ze'evi in 1988. It won two seats in the Knesset elections later that year, taken by Ze'evi and Yair Sprinzak. ...
while
Eliezer Sandberg
Eliezer Sandberg (, born 21 February 1962) is a former Israeli politician who served as a government minister between 2003 and 2004.
Biography
Born in Haifa, Sandberg studied law at Tel Aviv University, gaining an LLB. He joined the Tzomet part ...
left to form the
Centre Party.
By the end of the 14th Knesset, Tzomet only had 2 MKs left: Eitan himself and
Haim Dayan.
Following the dissolution of the Likud–Gesher–Tzomet alliance ahead of the
1999 elections, Tzomet was in the "political desert", it attempted to join the
National Union joint list or rejoin an alliance with the Likud, however both ventures failed and Tzomet ran alone for the Knesset. Over the years Tzomet had lost almost all its support, and won just 4,128 votes, less than 10% of the number needed to cross the 1.5%
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 ...
. After the humiliating defeat, Eitan retired from the political life. Following the retirement of Eitan, the party faded into obscurity in the Israeli political scene
Despite Rafael Eitan's departure, the party, now headed by Moshe Gerin, ran in the
2003
File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, disintegrated during reentry into Atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an 2002– ...
, the
2006 elections, and the
2009 elections, but won only 2,023, 1,342, and 1,520 votes, respectively, in the three elections, not meeting the election threshold in any of them. Following their failure to reach the threshold in four successive elections, the party decided not to run in the
2013
File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...
and
2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...
elections.
Modern Tzomet
In the lead up to the
April 2019 elections, Likud MK
Oren Hazan
Oren Asaf Hazan ( he, אורן אסף חזן, born 28 October 1981) is an Israeli politician. He served as a member of the Knesset for Likud between 2015 and 2019.
Early life
The son of former Likud Knesset member Yehiel Hazan, Oren served in t ...
failed to achieve a realistic spot in the Likud list, receiving only a small number of votes in the primaries. Following his failure in the Likud primaries, Oren Hazan declared that he would leave the Likud and head his own party, taking over the long-dormant Tzomet party.
Hazan reformed the party, abandoning Eitan's secularism and statesmanlike conduct in favor of Hazan's own rightwing populist policy and rhetoric. Under Hazan, Tzomet received the best result since Eitan's departure, earning 2,417 votes. Despite Hazan's marginal success, this result was far from enough to reach the electoral threshold, and Oren Hazan lost his Knesset seat.
Following Hazan's failure to revive the party, it returned to the hands of Moshe Gerin who brought the party back to its original form, focusing on
agrarianism
Agrarianism is a political and social philosophy that has promoted subsistence agriculture, smallholdings, and egalitarianism, with agrarian political parties normally supporting the rights and sustainability of small farmers and poor peasants ag ...
and settlement.
The party received an even better result in the
September 2019 elections, receiving 14,805 votes (0.33% of the popular vote).
Ideology
Tzomet's ideology was heavily reflective of Rafael Eitan (Raful) himself. Eitan was a
moshavnik
A moshav ( he, מוֹשָׁב, plural ', lit. ''settlement, village'') is a type of Israeli town or settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists between 1904 an ...
, as such, he was influenced by the moshavnik
agricultural
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people ...
,
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...
and
secularist
Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on secular, naturalistic considerations.
Secularism is most commonly defined as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state, and may be broadened to a sim ...
ideology.
Raful's Tzomet's platform included:
*
Separation of religion and state
The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular sta ...
and military recruitment of
Ultra Orthodox Jews.
* Annexation of the
West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
.
* Restricting voting rights only to those who have completed
national service
National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939.
The l ...
.
* Switching to a
presidential system
A presidential system, or single executive system, is a form of government in which a head of government, typically with the title of president, leads an executive branch that is separate from the legislative branch in systems that use separati ...
.
* Aggressive policy against
Palestinian terrorism
Palestinian political violence refers to acts of violence perpetrated for political ends in relation to the State of Palestine or in connection with Palestinian nationalism. Common political objectives include self-determination in and sovereig ...
.
* Economic policy based on
economic liberalism
Economic liberalism is a political and economic ideology that supports a market economy based on individualism and private property in the means of production. Adam Smith is considered one of the primary initial writers on economic liberalism, ...
and agriculture.
Under the leadership of Oren Hazan, Tzomet's ideology changed considerably. Tzomet no longer mentioned any changes to Israel's voting or government system. Hazan shifted Tzomet's focus away from secularism and recruitment of the Ultra Orthodox. Under Hazan, Tzomet focused primarily on criticizing Netanyahu's defense policy from the right and supporting more aggressive measures against terrorism and against the
Israeli Arab
The Arab citizens of Israel are the largest ethnic minority in the country. They comprise a hybrid community of Israeli citizens with a heritage of Palestinian citizenship, mixed religions (Muslim, Christian or Druze), bilingual in Arabic an ...
members of the Knesset.
After Hazan left the party, and Moshe Gerin came back to lead it, Tzomet's ideology returned to its agrarianist base.
[ The party's support dwindled 280 times in the fall-winter 2019.
]
Leaders
Election results
Knesset members
References
External links
Party history
Knesset website
Jewish Agency
{{Israeli political parties
Agrarian parties
Political parties established in 1983
Secular Jewish culture in Israel
Revisionist Zionism
Right-wing parties
Right-wing politics in Israel
Zionist political parties in Israel