Tzomet

Tzomet

Tzomet ( _he. צומת, lit "Crossroads") is a small secular, right-wing political party in Israel.

Ideology

The party was the one who first brought the "peace for peace" slogan, which today is used by all Israeli right wing parties and movements. "Peace for peace" means that Israel should not give up territories to get real peace (see land for peace), and if Arabs really want peace they should stop the policy of demanding lands using threats but give up on their demands.

The party supports a separation of religion and state.

History

The party was founded by General Rafael Eitan 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 (a small agricultural community). Tzomet run for the 1984 elections in a joint list with the Tehiya party and Eitan was its only member of the Knesset. Tzomet and the Tehiya parted way in 1987 and Tzomet ran independently in the 1988 elections, winning two seats. The party joined Yitzhak Shamir's government in 1990 and Eitan was appointed Minister of Agriculture. However, the part left the coalition in December 1991 in protest at Shamir's participation in the Madrid Conference.

In the 1992 elections Tzomet gained eight seats, but were not included in the left-wing coalition. However, the party's success was also its downfall. None of the new MKs had any political experience and most were completely anonymous. A popular joke at the time described the party as "Raful and the seven dwarfs". Allegations of tyrannical behavior by Raful were raised, and 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 if he voted in favour of the Oslo Accords, which Tzomet opposed, and which would not have passed without his vote.

All this reduced the popularity of the party and in the 1996 elections it chose to run in a joint list with the Likud 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 - 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. Eventually, three Tzomet candidates were voted into the Knesset, though one of them, Moshe Peled, broke away to form his own Mekhora faction before joining Moledet.

In the 1999 elections Tzomet ran alone for the Knesset. However, it 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. After the humiliating defeat, Eitan retired from the political life.

The party continues to exist and has run in both the 2003 and 2006 elections but won only 2,023 and 1,342 votes respectively.

Knesset members

ee also

*Neo-Zionism

External links

* [http://www.knesset.gov.il/faction/eng/FactionPage_eng.asp?PG=20 Party history] Knesset website
* [http://www.jafi.org.il/education/actual/elections/elections1996/yhelec7.html Israel Today Elections 96] Jewish Agency


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