Moledet

Moledet combined a program centered on population transfer with participation in parliamentary elections, governing coalitions, and joint right-wing electoral lists. Under its founder, Rehavam Ze’evi, known as “Gandhi,” it advocated transferring Arabs from Judea and Samaria and Gaza beyond Israel. One account describes the proposal as voluntary, while another describes the party’s 1988 platform as advocating forcible transfer.[6][1] Its early territorial program also supported annexing Judea and Samaria and Gaza, continuing settlements there, and opposing a binational state.[1]

Moledet won two Knesset seats in 1988 and three in 1992.[3][4] It returned to two seats in 1996.[5] From 1999, its electoral activity increasingly took place within alliances, beginning with the National Union list formed with Herut and Tkuma.[9][7] Later arrangements brought it together with Yisrael Beiteinu, Hatikva, and parties associated with the Jewish Home.[7][10]

Rehavam Ze’evi founded Moledet before Israel’s 1988 election after a career as an IDF general.[2] In the November 1 election, the party received 44,174 votes, representing 1.9 percent of valid votes, and won two seats.[3] Its elected representatives were Ze’evi and Ya’ir Shprinzak.[11] Population transfer was central to its first campaign, which advocated moving Palestinian Arabs from Judea and Samaria to Arab states.[1]

Between 1989 and 1990, Moledet criticized the government’s approach in the Palestinian territories as “too soft.”[11] It joined Yitzhak Shamir’s government on February 5, 1991, and Ze’evi served as a minister without portfolio.[11][6] Moledet left the government on January 21, 1992, in protest against Israel’s participation in the Madrid Conference.[6][2]

In the June 23, 1992 election, Moledet increased its representation to three seats, receiving 62,269 votes, or 2.4 percent of valid votes.[4] Its representatives were Ze’evi, Rabbi Joseph Bagad, and Shaul Gutman.[11] Bagad and Gutman subsequently left the party between November 1995 and April 1996, each establishing a separate group.[11] Bagad’s parliamentary protests included sitting on the Knesset floor for 15 minutes to oppose the evacuation of settlers in connection with the Oslo agreement.[12]

For the 1996 election, Moledet contested a common list with Zu Artzenu.[11] The two elected members were Ze’evi and Rabbi Benyamin, or Benny, Alon, who led Zu Artzenu.[11] The election results recorded 72,002 votes, 2.4 percent of valid votes, and two seats for Moledet.[5] A July 1998 parliamentary tally placed those two seats in the Knesset opposition.[13]

In March 1999, Moledet, Tkuma, and Herut agreed on a joint platform and the first seven positions on a shared electoral list.[9] The list was headed by Benny Begin, followed by Ze’evi and former National Religious Party member Hanan Porat.[9] The resulting National Union won four seats in the 1999 election.[7] The alliance operated within an electoral system that allowed voters to select a prime-ministerial candidate separately from a party representing narrower interests.[14]

The National Union’s composition changed in 2000, when Herut left and Yisrael Beiteinu replaced it.[7] In 2001, Ze’evi became tourism minister in Ariel Sharon’s government.[11] He was assassinated on October 17, 2001, in an attack for which the PFLP claimed responsibility.[11][15]

Ahead of the January 2003 election, Moledet, Tkuma, and Yisrael Beiteinu again formed an electoral alliance.[16] The National Union received 5.5 percent of the vote and won seven seats; this was the result for the combined list, not for Moledet alone.[6] By 2006, Benny Elon headed Moledet’s candidate list, with Aryeh Eldad selected for second place.[17] Positions 1, 6, 9, and 10 on the wider National Union list were reserved for Moledet candidates.[17]

In November 2008, Moledet joined the National Religious Party and Tkuma in the coalition that formed the Jewish Home ahead of the election to the Eighteenth Knesset.[10] The founders’ announced priorities included education, Israel’s Jewish identity, social welfare, ethical conduct, Jewish moral values, settlement, and political and security questions.[18] Disputes over candidate placements soon disrupted the arrangement.[10] Moledet and some Tkuma members left and re-formed the National Union with Hatikva.[10] Benny Elon announced his retirement after being placed seventeenth on the new party’s Knesset list.[19]

Before the January 2013 election, the National Union and Jewish Home reunited, with Tkuma and some Moledet members joining the Jewish Home.[10] A January 2013 election primer described the National Union as comprising Moledet, Hatikva, and Tkuma and running with Habayit Hayeudi; its estimate of 12–14 seats was a pre-election projection rather than an election result.[20]

Ze’evi wrote Moledet’s platform himself, including economic proposals extending beyond the party’s better-known territorial and population policies.[21] Its economic program supported free markets, limited government intervention, increased privatization, and free competition.[21] Alongside those positions, it called for completing social legislation, compulsory arbitration in labor disputes, and opposition to the waste of public funds.[21]

The early platform linked territorial policy to negotiations with Arab countries, presenting population transfer as a precondition for peace negotiations.[1] It also supported annexing Judea and Samaria and Gaza, maintaining settlements in those territories, and rejecting a binational state.[1] Moledet advocated financial compensation for lost property and work and stated support for maintaining democracy.[2]

The National Union’s program in the 2003 election combined support for voluntary transfer of Arabs from Judea and Samaria and Gaza to other Arab countries with opposition to concessions to the Palestinian Authority and to a Palestinian state.[6] A separate account of Moledet’s position in that election context described its proposed transfer as encompassing all Arabs in Israel, Judea and Samaria, and Gaza.[16]

In 2003, Moledet chairman Benny Alon advanced a diplomatic plan proposing the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority in its then-current form and measures to combat terrorism.[22] The plan envisaged a Palestinian state in Jordan and Jordanian citizenship for Arabs of Judea and Samaria and Gaza.[22] It also proposed supporting Jordan’s economic development and the absorption of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees, with a final stage described as “population exchange” and regional peace.[22]

Moledet’s independent representation rose from two seats in 1988 to three in 1992.[3][4] It returned to two seats in 1996 and subsequently participated in broader nationalist alliances.[5][7] The National Union won four seats in 1999 and seven in 2003.[7] The formation and breakup of the Jewish Home arrangement further demonstrated the importance of electoral alliances to Moledet’s later parliamentary activity.[10]

The party brought its transfer-centered program into government and parliamentary politics through Ze’evi’s ministerial service.[11][6] Its withdrawal over the Madrid Conference connected its coalition conduct directly to its opposition to the course of negotiations.[2] Under Benny Alon, the party’s diplomatic proposals continued to link the Palestinian question to Jordan and to a regional population arrangement.[22]

Population transfer was Moledet’s principal political controversy, and sources differ over the meaning and scope of the proposal. One account describes its 1988 platform as advocating forcible transfer, while an account of the Twelfth Knesset describes voluntary transfer.[1][6] A study published by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs distinguishes Moledet’s “transfer by agreement” from Meir Kahane’s advocacy of forcible transfer and interprets the former as a central plank of Moledet’s program.[8]

After the 1992 election, liberal opponents sought to disqualify Moledet on the grounds that its transfer platform was anti-democratic.[2] The dispute included its policy toward Israel’s Arab population, while the party also professed support for democracy and financial compensation.[2] Moledet retained the three seats it had won.[2] These disagreements concerned both the proposed treatment of Arab residents and whether the language of voluntary transfer adequately distinguished the party’s policy from compulsory removal.[1][8]