Tzomet
Tzomet
Founded in 1983
Established in 1983, Tzomet (literally: "Crossroads") was a right-wing Zionist party that formed around Rafael (Raful) Eitan after he completed his service as IDF Chief of Staff. Most of the active party members were former members of kibbutzim and moshavim who had historically been identified with the left and had changed their political orientation. Like Tehiya, Tzomet called for the annexation of Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip to Israel, making the right to vote conditional on the performance of national service, and imposing serious criminal penalties for breach of order in the territories. Alongside its stern positions on issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Tzomet had a clearly secular line, openly supported the drafting of yeshiva students, and opposed the allocation of large sums of money to yeshivot.
After Tehiya and Tzomet ran on a joint list in the 1984 elections for the 11th Knesset, the two parties separated. In the 1988 elections, Tzomet ran independently and won two seats. During the governmental crisis of 1990 ("the stinking maneuver”), Tzomet began to market itself as a fresh party with integrity that could represent a new kind of politics. This helped the party to gain an impressive eight seats in the 1992 elections. During the term of that Knesset, the party split and in the period leading up to the next elections in 1996, Eitan and his followers joined a joint list with the Likud and Gesher. In the 1999 elections, Tzomet ran independently and did not pass the electoral threshold.
The party, under various heads, continued to run in subsequent elections, but received a decreasing number of votes, and failed to enter the Knesset.
| Election Year | Votes Count | Number Of Seats | Share Of Votes | List Of Candidates | Platform |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 1,520 | - | 0.1 |
Candidates
|
|
| 2006 | 1,342 | - | 0.0 |
Candidates
|
|
| 2003 | 2,023 | - | 0.1 |
Candidates
|
|
| 1999 | 4,128 | - | 0.1 |
Candidates
|
|
| 1992 | 165,366 | 8 | 6.4 |
Candidates
|
Platform
|
| 1988 | 45,489 | 2 | 2.0 |
Candidates
|
Platform
|
Note that the candidates and platforms in this table are in Hebrew
Rafael (Raful) Eitan, Yoash Tzidon, Eliezer Sandberg
Tzomet joined the government formed by Yitzhak Shamir in June 1990. Rafael (Raful) Eitan represented the party as Minister of Agriculture. The party left the government in late 1991 due to political disagreements with the Prime Minister. The party returned to the government after the 1996 elections and Eitan served as Minister of Agriculture and of Environmental Protection in the first government of Binyamin Netanyahu.