Tzomet

Tzomet was a right-wing Israeli political party founded and led by Rafael Eitan, a former IDF chief of staff. Its name means “Crossroads,” while another English rendering of its formal identity is the Movement for Renewed Zionism.[1][2] The party became best known for its breakthrough in the 1992 election, when it won eight Knesset seats, and for combining security-focused opposition to territorial concessions with demands for political and institutional change.[3][4]

Its political history included repeated changes in electoral status. Tzomet initially ran with Tehiya, later competed independently, entered government, and joined Likud and Gesher on a common list in 1996.[6][7] Internal departures and electoral defeats weakened the original movement, which won no seats in 1999. Later political efforts reused the Tzomet name under different leaders and with different emphases, including agriculture and rural policy.[2][5]

Sources characterize Tzomet’s ideology and electorate in different ways. Some describe it as ultranationalist or part of the extreme right, while election analyses emphasize its security orientation, secular-right appeal, and clean-government message.[1][4] These descriptions are interpretations of the party’s political positioning rather than formal legal categories.

Sources differ on whether Tzomet was founded in 1983 or 1984. One reference dates its founding to October 1983, while an Encyclopaedia Judaica entry places it in 1984 before the election to the Eleventh Knesset.[6][8] A 2004 report adds that former party member Nehama Ronen recalled establishing it with Eitan in 1984.[9]

Eitan entered the Knesset in 1984 through the joint Tehiya–Tzomet list. He served on the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and the State Control Committee.[10] Tzomet separated from Tehiya’s parliamentary faction in November 1987 following personal and political disagreements between Eitan and Tehiya leader Geula Cohen.[8][10]

Tzomet then ran independently in the November 1988 election, winning two seats with 45,489 votes, or 2.0 percent of valid votes. The qualifying threshold was 1 percent.[11] A Library of Congress country study places the party on the right of Israel’s political spectrum and characterizes it as “extreme right-wing ultranationalist.”[1] That language is a source characterization, not a statutory classification.

Tzomet’s 1988 platform opposed returning territory under Israeli sovereignty, proposed resolving the Palestinian question east of the Jordan, and called for Israeli jurisdiction over the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — and the Gaza Strip. It also proposed a constitution, changes to election law, Arab representation in the administration, a reduced role for the state, and separation of religion and state.[6]

An Encyclopaedia Judaica account lists support for Greater Israel, compulsory military service for yeshiva students, reduced state financing for yeshivot, privatization, and opposition to the Oslo Accords and territorial concessions on the Golan Heights.[8] These positions combined territorial nationalism with a strongly secular approach to religion-state relations.

A contemporary press account preserved by the American Jewish Archives reported that Eitan advocated tying civil rights to possession of a military reserve registration card, which would exclude Arabs who did not perform military service.[12] This was a journalist’s report of Eitan’s remarks, not evidence that the proposal became enacted policy.

After Eitan’s retirement, later versions of Tzomet adopted additional themes. A 2006 campaign account described the Green-led party as supporting agreements with Arab states based on “peace for peace,” prioritizing education and national-Zionist values, and promising land to discharged IDF soldiers.[13] These later proposals should be distinguished from the platform and parliamentary record of Eitan’s original faction.

Tzomet joined Yitzhak Shamir’s government in June 1990, with Eitan becoming minister of agriculture. It left the government at the end of 1991 amid opposition to the Madrid Conference; another account says Eitan resigned after Shamir agreed to participate in negotiations with the Palestinians.[8][6]

In the June 1992 election, Tzomet won eight seats with 166,366 votes, or 6.4 percent of valid votes. This was the party’s best result.[3] It campaigned under the slogan “clean politics,” and an Encyclopaedia Judaica account says it attracted many former Likud voters.[8] A Jerusalem Post retrospective characterizes it as seeking support among secular right-wing voters.[14]

A Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs analysis portrayed Tzomet as a counterpart to Meretz on the political right. It argued that the party appealed both to voters who supported its territorial and security positions and to voters interested in clean government but opposed to Meretz’s peace platform.[4] The same analysis described Tzomet as security-oriented rather than mystical or traditionally nationalist in the manner it attributed to other right-wing parties.

The analysis says Tzomet’s support was distributed more evenly than Meretz’s, which performed especially well in the three largest cities and in kibbutzim. Tzomet received little support in the Arab sector, while Meretz received more than 10 percent there.[4] Another reference reports that a poll found more than 17 percent of army conscripts voted for Tzomet.[6]

Eitan headed a list that paired him with seven candidates an election analysis called “unknowns.” Yoash Tzidon, identified as the party’s former number two and a successful MK, was offered a lower position.[15] The resulting faction became known as “Raful and the Seven Dwarfs” because its other members were little known.[16]

The JCPA presented Tzomet’s rise as part of a broader reshaping of the right: the smaller right-wing parties, including the National Religious Party, rose from 12 seats to 17, while Tzomet advanced from two seats to eight. It also argued that Tzomet helped displace Tehiya, which failed to cross the threshold.[4] This is an interpretation of the election’s political effects rather than a directly measurable causal finding.

Tzomet remained outside Yitzhak Rabin’s Labor-led coalition. One reference says discussions about bringing it into the government ended after Meretz threatened to leave.[8][6] A later opinion article interprets the distribution of right-wing votes in 1992 as strengthening Rabin’s ability to form a government with Meretz and Shas.[17] That conclusion is political interpretation, not an election statistic.

Tzomet’s strong 1992 result was followed by a breakdown in party unity. In February 1994, Gonen Segev, Alex Goldfarb, and Esther Salmovitz left the party; the breakaway faction was initially known as Ya’ad.[18][16] Accounts differ in their explanations. One links the split to Segev’s criticism of Eitan’s authoritarian leadership, while an Encyclopaedia Judaica account describes growing discontent with Eitan’s domineering style and says Labor later recruited three Tzomet members, offering ministerial posts to two.[6][8]

A JCPA analysis attributed the party’s fragmentation to Eitan’s “dictatorial style” and to his selection of candidates whom the authors regarded as more personally ambitious than committed to the movement.[19] This was the authors’ evaluative explanation, not a neutral measurement of the split’s causes.

The departures became entangled with coalition politics and Oslo II. A Ynetnews opinion article reports that Rabin asked the three former Tzomet members to join the coalition; Segev and Goldfarb joined in January 1995, while Salmovitz did not support Oslo II.[18] The Knesset approved the agreement on October 6, 1995, by 61 votes to 59. A separate opinion account likewise says Segev and Goldfarb supported it while Salmovitz refused.[20]

During the dispute, Likud MK Michael Eitan accused the former Tzomet members of “selling yourselves for a Mitsubishi.” The phrase became a recurring political charge, but it did not independently establish their motives.[18] A later Calcalist report says the vehicle associated with Goldfarb’s government position was actually a Toyota, while noting that the episode became a symbol of trading principles for office.[16]

For the 1996 election, Tzomet joined Likud and Gesher in a single electoral list led by Benjamin Netanyahu.[7] The alliance helped keep Eitan and Gesher leader David Levy out of the separate prime-ministerial race and allowed Netanyahu to compete directly against Shimon Peres.[21]

The joint list won 32 seats. One reference allocates five seats to Tzomet, while a ynet retrospective says Tzomet-affiliated candidates won six.[6][10] A Washington Institute account identifies Eitan as holding five seats and reports the 32-seat total for Likud including Tzomet without a separate election-table allocation.[21] Eitan became deputy prime minister and minister of agriculture and the environment, while Moshe Peled became deputy minister of education.[6]

In 1998, Eitan remained agriculture minister and head of Tzomet. He pledged to leave the government with the party’s other four MKs if Netanyahu agreed to a territorial withdrawal exceeding 7 percent; the coalition tally listed Tzomet with five seats.[22]

Tzomet failed to win representation in the 1999 election. A Washington Institute analysis referred to the party’s “passing” and omitted it from the parties represented in the Fifteenth Knesset.[23] Other reference accounts state that it broke from Likud in March 1999, that Eitan withdrew his prime-ministerial candidacy before the election, and that Eli’ezer (Mudi) Sandberg was the only one of its former Fourteenth Knesset members to remain in parliament, as a member of Shinui.[6][8]

The party’s political activity did not end immediately. Eitan announced his retirement in 2002 and gave way to Moshe Green, but Tzomet again failed to cross the threshold in 2003.[9] Further campaigns in 2006 and 2009 also failed; in 2009 the party received 1,412 votes.[24][25] Its brief period of substantial parliamentary strength was therefore followed by a prolonged inability to regain representation.

The name returned under different leadership in 2019. After losing a realistic position in Likud’s primaries, former Likud MK Oren Hazan headed a renewed Tzomet list described as a secular right-wing party.[26] Reports differ slightly on its April result: ynet gives 2,417 votes, or 0.06 percent of valid votes, while Calcalist gives an approximate total of 2,500.[27][16]

For the September 2019 election, Green again led the list, which emphasized farmers, moshavim, kibbutzim, and rural policy. He called for action on access to water, price gaps involving intermediaries, and regulation of non-agricultural uses on farmsteads. He also sought authority over the agriculture ministry, the Israel Land Authority, and the Water Authority.[28]

Green opposed enforcement against unauthorized construction in moshavim under Amendment 116 to the Planning and Building Law. He argued that enforcement was selective and that the regulatory system prevented farmers from making a living.[28] The claim of selective enforcement was Green’s position, not an independently established conclusion in the report.

Tzomet received 14,805 votes in September 2019 but no seats. It withdrew from the 2020 election and expressed support for Likud.[29] This later agricultural iteration should be distinguished from the parliamentary party led by Eitan.

In August 2026, Green’s Tzomet announced a partnership with Gadi Yevarkan’s Beit Yisrael and the Miluim Lema’an Ha’am organization, presenting it as a “third camp” on the right. Its agenda combined security and national identity with social and economic policy, agriculture, settlement, food security, cost-of-living concerns, and support for rural communities, older people, and younger Israelis.[5]

At the partnership’s September launch, Beit Yisrael presented a proposal requiring every citizen to contribute through possible service tracks including the IDF, security and emergency services, health, education, welfare, or other national-service frameworks. It proposed benefits for those who served and sanctions for people who did not serve without justification.[30]

Ahead of the October 27, 2026 election, the joint Tzomet Beit Yisrael slate was reported to be headed by Yevarkan and oriented toward right-wing, social, and agricultural policies. As of October 26, 2026, the election had not yet taken place.[31]

Descriptions of Tzomet’s ideological position vary by source. The Library of Congress calls it “extreme right-wing ultranationalist,” while JCPA election analyses emphasize its security orientation, secular appeal, and clean-government message.[1][4] The supplied sources do not establish a single neutral label that resolves those differing analytical frameworks.

Sources also disagree on the party’s founding date and the causes of its internal collapse. Reference accounts give 1983 or 1984 as the founding year.[6][8] Explanations for the split variously emphasize Eitan’s leadership, the ambitions of individual MKs, and Labor’s recruitment of dissatisfied members.[19][8]

The reported remarks about connecting civil rights to military reserve registration remain a journalist’s account of Eitan’s position rather than evidence of an enacted policy.[12] Similarly, the “Mitsubishi” allegation was a political accusation, and later reporting disputes even the vehicle’s make; it does not independently prove that the former MKs exchanged their political principles for office.[18][16]