Tzomet Party (Junction; Movement for the Zionist Renaissance, in Hebrew)

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TZOMET PARTY (Junction; Movement for the Zionist Renaissance, in Hebrew)

Ultranationalist Israeli party, founded in October 1983 by General Rafael Eitan (called Raful), former army chief of staff of the Israel Defense Force (IDF) for the Operation Peace for Galilee. Partisan of the ideology of Greater Israel, this party was on the extreme right of the Israeli political spectrum. Shortly after it was created, Tzomet allied with ha-Tehiyah, but very rapidly there was discord between the leaders of the two groups, prompting a separation. For the election campaign of 1988, which took place in the shadow of the first Intifada, Tzomet presented the following platform:
(1) No land currently under Israel sovereignty will be returned; (2) The solution to the Palestinian problem is to be found on the other side of the Jordan; (3) Israeli jurisdiction must extend to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip; (4) the creation of an Israeli constitution; modification of the electoral law so as to make the Jewish deputies more representative; active Arab representation in the Israeli administration; reduction of the role of the state; (5) separation of religion and the state. As a result of the vote, this party won two seats, taken by Rafael Eitan and Yoach Tziddon.

Between June 1990 and December 1991, Eitan was minister of agriculture in the government of Yitzhak Shamir, becoming outspoken in favor of Jewish settlements. The leader of Tzomet resigned from the Shamir government after the latter agreed to participate in negotiations with the Palestinians. In June 1992, in spite of the electoral defeat of the Israel right, Tzomet obtained eight seats in the Knesset. A poll indicated that more than 17 percent of army conscripts voted for this party. Parleys were arranged to discuss an eventual entrance of Tzomet into the government of the Laborite Yitzhak Rabin. Meretz threatened to withdraw from the governmental coalition, and Rabin renounced this plan. In February 1994, a split in the party, prompted by Gonen Segev, who criticized the authoritarianism of the head of Tzomet, gave rise to a new grouping, Yad. Thereby Tzomet lost three seats. In February 1996, anticipating elections for the following May, Tzomet presented a common list with Likud, with Benjamin Netanyahu at the top of it. On the following 7 March, the Gesher Party joined the Tzomet-Likud alliance, with Eitan accepting third position on the party list, behind Netanyahu and David Levy. After the ballot, Tzomet had won 5 seats, with the Likud-Gesher-Tzomet parliamentary bloc obtaining 32 seats of the 120 in the Knesset. On the following 18 June, two Tzomet members joined the Netanyahu government: Rafael Eitan (as deputy prime minister and minister of agriculture and the environment) and Moshe Peled (as deputy minister of education). During their term in office, while the government seemed to be on verge of making progress in the negotiations with the Palestinians, ministers Eitan and Peled were adamant in their opposition to any concessions to the latter. In January 1999, after he announced a month earlier his candidacy for the post of prime minister, Eitan abandoned this idea. On the following 17 May, having obtained no seats in the scheduled general elections, Tzomet disappeared from the Israeli political scene.