Tzomet

Tzomet (צוֹמֶת, lit., Crossroads) is a small, right-wing political party in Israel. The party was founded by General Rafael Eitan in 1983, after his retirement from the position of chief-of-staff in 1982. He headed it throughout its existence, and modeled it in his spirit as a secular, right-wing party with a strong agricultural side. Many of Tzomet's members and MKs were neighbors of Eitan in Tel Adashim (a small moshav). Tzomet ran for the 1984 elections in a joint list with the Tehiya party, and Eitan was its only member of the Knesset. Tzomet and the Tehiya parted way in 1987, and Tzomet ran independently in the 1988 elections, winning two seats. The party joined Yitzhak Shamir's government in 1990, and Eitan was appointed Minister of Agriculture. However, the party left the coalition in December 1991 in protest at Shamir's participation in the Madrid Conference. In the 1992 elections, Tzomet rode a wave of secularist sentiment, gaining the support of many young Israelis, leading to a surprising result of eight seats. Despite Tzomet's success it was not included in Yitzhak Rabin's left-wing coalition. The party's surprising success was also its downfall. None of the new MKs had any political experience, and most were completely unknown. Due to Raful's position in his party, the party was jokingly described as "Raful and the seven dwarfs". Allegations of tyrannical behavior by Raful were raised, and in February 1992, three members: Gonen Segev, Esther Salmovitz, and Alex Goldfarb—left and founded the Yiud party (which then also splintered into Atid). The three left the party because Segev was offered the position of Minister of Energy by Yitzhak Rabin if he voted in favour of the Oslo Accords, which Tzomet opposed, and which would not have passed without his vote. The splintering and infighting reduced the popularity of the party, despite this, ahead of the 1996 elections, Eitan became known as a potential candidate for PM. In the end Tzomet chose to run in a joint list with the Likud and Gesher under the name "National Camp List".