Telem (2019 Political Party)

Telem was a short-lived Israeli center-right party established by Moshe Ya’alon in January 2019. It operated chiefly as a constituent of Blue and White across three elections before joining Yesh Atid in opposition after the alliance split in March 2020.[1][3]

Ya’alon prepared Telem for an independent campaign before the 2021 election but concluded that such a run would not strengthen the political camp seeking change. He and the party consequently withdrew from the contest.[4]

Moshe Ya’alon registered Telem as a new party on January 2, 2019, ahead of the April Knesset election. Its name abbreviated Tnu’a Leumit Mamlakhtit, rendered as “National Statesmanlike Movement” and associated with national responsibility.[2] The name echoed an earlier party led by former chief of staff Moshe Dayan, whose Telem was an acronym for “Movement for National Renewal.”[5]

Ya’alon had served as Israel’s defense minister from 2013 to 2016 and as Israel Defense Forces chief of staff.[1] He launched Telem as an independent political force and called for experienced women and men, responsible leadership, and political partnerships that could offer an alternative to the country’s leadership.[2][6] His launch remarks invoked Israel’s internal and external challenges, security, and prospects for peace; he had also identified economic and social issues, including racism and sexism, as matters he wanted to address. These statements were not presented as a detailed formal party platform.[5]

In early 2019, Telem joined Benny Gantz’s Israel Resilience Party and Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid in the electoral alliance known as Kahol Lavan, or Blue and White.[3][7] Telem was allocated four places among the first 30 candidates in the announced slate arrangement, while Ya’alon was placed third on the joint list.[8][9]

The alliance contested the April and September 2019 elections and the March 2020 election. Blue and White won 35 seats in April and 33 in September.[1][9] It won another 33 seats in March 2020.[10] The cited election histories report alliance totals rather than a separate vote or seat total for Telem.[9][10]

Telem was described as a rightist or center-right party, while the broader Blue and White alliance brought together multiple parties and leaders. The Congressional Research Service characterized Telem specifically as a “center-right, pro-nationalist alternative to Netanyahu.”[3][11] Positions described for the alliance as a whole should not automatically be treated as Telem’s own platform.[12]

At the party’s launch, Ya’alon emphasized experienced and responsible leadership, national security, and cooperation that could provide an alternative government.[2][6] Accounts of Telem’s priorities also listed Israel’s character as a Jewish, democratic, secure, prosperous, and moral state; Jewish values and tradition; sovereignty and security; and an open, free-market economy. Other priorities included improving services and infrastructure, reducing bureaucracy and regulation, revising public funding and resource distribution, and providing representative support for culture, society, sport, and leisure across different groups.[11]

Ya’alon publicly rejected a two-state solution and supported settlements in the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — including stating that Israel had a right to settle throughout the Land of Israel.[13] These were Ya’alon’s stated positions; the same reporting recorded Gantz expressing a different emphasis and saying that he would seek an agreement with the Palestinians.[13] The broader Blue and White platform proposed a regional conference with Arab countries to advance separation from the Palestinians while protecting Israeli security interests, opposed further “disengagement,” supported strengthening settlement blocs, and designated the Jordan Valley as Israel’s eastern security border.[12]

An account of Telem’s platform quoted a call for a regional conference with Arab states and deeper processes of separation from the Palestinians. The article assessed that language as vague and as differing from Ya’alon’s earlier positions in Likud; that was the author’s interpretation rather than an independently established description of the party’s full program.[14]

Blue and White’s internal divisions became acute during efforts to form a government after the March 2020 election. A central disagreement concerned whether Gantz should rely on support from the Joint List, an Arab-led parliamentary alliance, in a coalition effort. Telem members Yoaz Hendel and Zvi Hauser objected to such reliance, although the Joint List would not have been an official coalition member.[1][3]

Gantz’s election as Knesset speaker on March 26, 2020, advanced negotiations for a unity government with Netanyahu’s Likud-led bloc.[15] Ya’alon and Lapid opposed joining a Netanyahu-led government, while the government-formation effort had also been stalled by two Blue and White members unwilling to serve in a coalition supported by the Joint List.[3][12] Ya’alon and Lapid regarded Gantz’s move as a betrayal of their supporters, a reported political judgment rather than an independently established fact.[12]

On March 29, 2020, the Knesset Arrangements Committee allowed the Yesh Atid and Telem factions to separate, while Gantz’s Israel Resilience faction retained the Blue and White name. The resulting Yesh Atid–Telem faction had 16 members.[1][3] The Congressional Research Service separately listed the post-split Blue and White faction with 15 coalition seats; these figures describe parliamentary factions, not seats won by Telem alone.[3]

Hauser and Hendel left Telem and formed Derech Eretz, which supported the unity government and aligned with Gantz’s side.[1][16] Orly Fruman also supported Gantz’s election as speaker. Globes reported at the time that Fruman, Hauser, and Hendel were likely to leave Telem, but did not establish that Fruman joined Derech Eretz.[15]

In January 2021, Telem announced an independent run in the election for the 24th Knesset. Ya’alon presented prospective candidates including Yizhar Shai, Hagai Levine, Gonen Ben Yitzhak, Karin Meir Rubinstein, and attorney Ayman Abu Ria. He withdrew Abu Ria’s candidacy hours after presenting him, citing the party’s values and personal example. Abu Ria was suspected of bribery and the case had not been closed, but the report did not establish guilt and recorded his denial of the allegations.[17]

At the start of February, Ya’alon announced that he would leave political life and that Telem would not contest the election. He said he had believed an independent campaign could strengthen the political camp seeking change, but concluded that the assumption was wrong and that the circumstances called for the party not to run.[4] Polling before the election had indicated that Telem was unlikely to cross the electoral threshold.[18]

Telem’s principal political importance came from its role as the rightist component of an alliance that also included two parties described as centrist. Its participation helped Blue and White encompass a wider ideological range while pursuing the shared goal of replacing Netanyahu’s government.[1][3]

Telem members also influenced the coalition crisis after the March 2020 election. Hendel and Hauser’s objection to reliance on Joint List support and Ya’alon’s opposition to a Netanyahu unity government contributed to two different post-split alignments: Derech Eretz in the coalition and Yesh Atid–Telem in opposition.[1][3]

Telem’s place in Blue and White involved tensions between its center-right, pro-nationalist identity and the broader alliance’s electoral coalition. The best-documented disputes concerned whether to rely on Joint List support and whether to join a unity government with Netanyahu.[1][3] These disagreements preceded the 2020 split and the departure of Hauser and Hendel to Derech Eretz.[16]

Accounts should distinguish Ya’alon’s statements on a two-state solution and settlements from positions attributed to Blue and White as a whole.[12][13] A commentary article about the Trump peace plan discussed Ya’alon as one of Blue and White’s leaders and described the alliance leadership’s support for sovereignty in the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea basin, but did not identify those positions as a distinct Telem policy.[19]