Center Party (Israel)

The Center Party was active chiefly between 1999 and 2003. It brought together senior figures from Likud, Labor-associated political circles, and the military establishment, presenting itself as a nationwide alternative to Israel's two principal political camps.[1][2]

In the 1999 election, the party received 165,622 votes, or 5.0 percent of valid ballots, and won six Knesset seats.[3] It entered Ehud Barak's government but failed to develop into the major centrist force its founders had envisioned. A later analysis records that it disappeared from the political scene in the 2003 election.[5]

The party emerged from political realignments near the end of the Fourteenth Knesset, when members of Labor, Likud, and Tzomet left their parliamentary groups in an effort to create a new force at the center of Israeli politics.[3] A Lookstein Center account traces an earlier organizational origin to a party founded by Roni Milo in 1995 and describes it as attracting figures formerly associated with Likud, Labor, Tzomet, Gesher, the Third Way, and Meimad.[6] Other sources identify 1999 as the establishment of the unified party that contested the election.[1]

On January 25, 1999, Lipkin-Shahak, Meridor, Milo, and Mordechai announced the formation of a united centrist party, with Mordechai heading its list and Lipkin-Shahak placed second.[2] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had dismissed Mordechai as defense minister on January 23 after a period of dissent over Netanyahu's politics and political style. Two days later, polling that placed Mordechai slightly ahead of Lipkin-Shahak helped determine the party's choice of leader.[7]

The party's leading figures included former Likud politicians Mordechai, Meridor, and Milo; former IDF chief of staff Lipkin-Shahak; former Labor figure Uri Savir; and Dalia Rabin-Pelossof. A contemporary analysis observed that the group crossed established political boundaries but shared strong opposition to Netanyahu.[8] Its campaign presented this breadth more positively, promoting a moderate political center and the goal of creating “one strong center party.”[9]

The party advocated improving the economy, investing in education, negotiating with Syria and the Palestinians, and uprooting political corruption.[1] Its leaders also emphasized national unity, tolerance, and a responsible pursuit of the peace process. Contemporary analysis nevertheless argued that opposition to Netanyahu was a stronger unifying force among its prominent members than any detailed common program.[7][8]

Internal divisions were apparent over both religion and diplomacy. Roni Milo adopted a strongly anti-ultra-Orthodox position, while Mordechai expressed sympathy toward the religious sector and publicly honored Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. The party also lacked agreement on the details of the peace process, while Mordechai's public agenda concentrated on national unity and tolerance rather than a specific policy program.[7]

The breadth of the coalition also attracted satire. A contemporary Lookstein Center account repeated a joke that Jordan's Crown Prince Hassan had joined the Center Party because he had not become king—a commentary on the party's willingness to receive prominent figures who had been displaced or disappointed elsewhere.[6]

The party entered the May 17, 1999 election as a moderate center that claimed it could challenge the dominance of Labor and Likud. Its slogans included “Setting out on a new path,” “We need a strong center,” and “Only Mordechai can win big!”[9] The last slogan drew on polls suggesting that Mordechai would defeat Netanyahu by a wider margin than Labor leader Ehud Barak in a hypothetical head-to-head contest.[8]

Under the electoral system then in effect, voters cast separate ballots for prime minister and for a party list, making Mordechai's prime-ministerial candidacy central to the party's strategy.[10] One pre-election analysis projected that the Center Party might win between five and twelve Knesset seats, partly depending on whether Mordechai remained in the prime-ministerial race. The same analysis noted that he was polling at barely 10 percent in that contest.[8]

Mordechai participated in a televised debate with Netanyahu that Barak declined to attend. Although polling indicated that many viewers believed Mordechai had performed well, the early enthusiasm surrounding his candidacy did not develop into sustained momentum.[10][11] On May 16, the day before voting, Mordechai withdrew from the prime-ministerial race and endorsed Barak.[7] He was nevertheless elected to the Fifteenth Knesset as head of the Center Party list.[12]

The Center Party received 165,622 valid votes—5.0 percent of the total—and won six seats. In the simultaneous prime-ministerial election, Barak defeated Netanyahu by 56.1 percent to 43.9 percent.[3] The Center Party result was widely regarded as disappointing. A Washington Institute analysis called it one of the election's major losers, describing its slate as a “dream team” of personalities that lacked substantive ideas.[13] Shinui also won six seats and attracted voters whom the Center Party had hoped to secure.[3]

The party joined Barak's coalition, which initially had the support of 70 Knesset members and also included One Israel, Shas, Meretz, the National Religious Party, and Yisrael be-Aliyah.[3] Mordechai served as deputy prime minister and transportation minister, Lipkin-Shahak became tourism minister and later transportation minister, and Roni Milo later served as health minister. Dan Meridor chaired the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.[3][6]

The party's six representatives were Mordechai, Lipkin-Shahak, Meridor, Milo, Uri Savir, and Dalia Rabin-Pelossof.[4] The combination of cabinet posts and a major committee chairmanship gave the small faction influence beyond its six seats, but it did not prevent the organizational and financial problems that soon weakened it.

The Center Party accumulated debts of 32 million shekels, which it could not immediately repay. Its six Knesset members undertook to direct their monthly public party-financing allocations toward the debt for the duration of the Fifteenth Knesset.[4] The arrangement left little money for normal operations: the party retained very few paid employees, conducted almost no branch activity, and had limited resources for the parliamentary work of its representatives.[4]

Mordechai resigned from the government and later the Knesset after accusations of sexual assault. In March 2001, he was convicted of sexually assaulting and harassing two women and received an 18-month suspended sentence.[3][12] In May 2000, the faction selected Lipkin-Shahak as its chairman and nominee for transportation minister while stating that Mordechai remained a party member and Knesset member at that stage.[14] Lipkin-Shahak later received the transportation portfolio and resigned from the Knesset in March 2001.[2][3]

Between June and August 2000, the Center Party was the only one of Barak's coalition partners not to leave the government, even as the party itself stood on the verge of disintegration.[3] By the end of the Fifteenth Knesset, its original parliamentary group had scattered: one member joined Labor-Meimad, two returned to Likud, and Dan Meridor decided to rejoin Likud while temporarily remaining in the Center Party faction for technical reasons.[3]

In May 2002, Milo announced that he was leaving the Center Party and returning to Likud. He said he had concluded that the Oslo Accords had caused Israel great harm and sought to persuade other Center Party members to follow him. The same report said that Meridor was discussing a possible move to Shinui.[15]

For the 2003 election, the remaining Center Party list was headed by MK David Magen, described as the last remnant of a once-prominent slate whose members had dispersed between Likud and Labor.[16] The party did not return to the Knesset and disappeared from the political scene in that election.[5]

The Center Party formed part of a recurring series of Israeli efforts to create a durable political force between the established Labor and Likud camps.[17] Its slate brought together a former defense minister, a former IDF chief of staff, senior former Likud politicians, and figures identified with Labor and the peace process.[8][9]

Its trajectory demonstrated both the appeal and the fragility of personality-driven centrist parties: a high-profile launch produced six seats and cabinet influence, but internal disagreements, heavy debt, leadership departures, and defections prevented the party from developing a durable organization.[3][4] The party's disappearance in 2003 was later discussed alongside other short-lived centrist or “atmosphere” parties that achieved an initial electoral breakthrough but failed to maintain an independent political base.[5][17]

The party faced campaign-finance controversies. A Library of Congress report summarizing the Israeli state comptroller's findings states that the Center Party violated campaign-finance law by accepting donations from nonprofit associations, although the cited passage does not identify the associations or amounts involved.[18] This finding was distinct from an earlier February 1999 investigation into fundraising meetings in the United States before the party's formal registration. The party's spokesperson said those funds had been collected for associations before registration and that the party would follow the Political Parties Financing Law thereafter.[19]

The party's ideological identity was also disputed. A contemporary Washington Institute analysis argued that its leading members shared little politically beyond opposition to Netanyahu.[8] A Lookstein Center analyst described the party as “essentially left” despite its centrist presentation and placed its short life within a broader pattern of centrist parties that make ambitious claims but achieve modest and temporary success.[17] These were the authors' political interpretations rather than formal descriptions of a unified party platform.

Mordechai's misconduct case became the most consequential personal controversy in the party's history. His departure contributed to the faction's disintegration, and his March 2001 conviction for sexual assault and harassment transformed the matter from an allegation into an adjudicated criminal case.[3][12]