Centre Party (Israel)
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The Center Party (Mifleget Hamerkaz; מפלגת המרכז) was a splinter group formed as "Israel in the Center" in 1999 by former Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai composed at that time of himself, David Magen/Monsonego, and Dan Meridor of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling Likud Party, Knesset members Hagai Merom and Nissim Zvili of the Israeli Labour Party, and Eliezer Sandberg of the Likud's internal faction "Tzomet", the former party of Gen. Rafael Eitan. The aim of Mordechai's party was to create a group of moderates to challenge both Netanyahu on the right and opposition leader Ehud Barak's Labour Party on the left.
Israel in the Center borrowed many of its themes from The Third Way, a group that split with the Labour Party in 1994 over rumours of negotiatons to return the Golan Heights. However, by 1999 The Third Way was a partner of the Likud government and had lost much of its public credit due to its small influence on Netanyahu. Mordechai, who was less hawkish than Netanyahu, wanted further progress in the Oslo Accords, and clashed with the prime minister and other members of his cabinet. Though few of the new party's positions were original, it was considered impossible for Mordechai to break with the Likud in any other way, as joining the Labour Party would mean taking the passenger seat to Ehud Barak, who was far more hated by Mordechai than Netanyahu.
The joining of Dan Meridor was one of the best events of the early days of the party. One of the Likud's younger and more professional members, Meridor had a solid record as minister of justice from 1988 until 1992, was the son of Irgun resistance member and later Knesset member Yakov Meridor, and was a civilian counterballance to Mordechai.
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[edit] Proving ground
In the 1999 elections, Mordechai challenged Netanyahu in direct elections for prime minister but dropped out before the ballot when it became clear that Ehud Barak was rapidly rising in the polls. In elections to the Knesset itself the Center Party took roughly 5% of the vote, enough for 6 seats. Later three more Knesset members would join the party, including Dalia Rabin Pelossof, the daughter of slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. However, the most significant ally Mordechai had made was General Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, the just-retired army Chief-of-Staff who had been his most bitter rival for that post in 1994.
[edit] Stalwarts in government
The party joined Ehud Barak's One Israel coalition, Haredi orientalist Shas, David Levy's social pressure group Gesher, the leftist Meretz, the National Religious Party, and immigrant sector faction Yisrael Ba'aliya in one of the least united governments in Israel's history. In retrospect Mordechai would have been one of the more outstanding ministers (he was both deputy premier and minister of transport) if a sex scandal from his years in the army hadn't erupted and brought him down. On May 30, 2000, Mordechai resigned from the Knesset, and the Center Party began to disintegrate. Lipkin replaced him as minister of transport. During the Barak government there were three Center Party ministers: Lipkin, Mordechai, and former Tel-Aviv mayor and senior Likud defector Roni Milo as Minister of Health.
Another major trait of that government was the prolifity of ministers of oriental ancestry, including Mordechai (Kurdistan), Foreign Minister Levy (Morocco), Housing Benjamin Ben-Eliezer (One Israel-Labour, Iraq),Internal Security Shlomo Ben-Ami (One Israel-Labour; Morocco), Labour Eliyahu Yishai (Shas; Moroccan parents), Labour Ra'anan Cohen (One Israel-Labour; Iraq, succeeded Yishai's resignation), National Infrastructure Eli Suissa (Shas; Morocco), Religious Affairs Yitzhak Cohen (Shas), and deputy ministers Meshulam Nahari (Education) and Nissim Dahan (Finance; Morocco) both of Shas. Nevertheless the government failed to attract major backing from he Mizrahi (oriental) Jewish demographic, who overwhelming sided with the successful right wing effort to force new elections.
[edit] Unravelling
The perceived blandness of the Center Party during the frenzied opposition campaign against Barak made it a dead duck in the Knesset, and soon its legislators began to desert. Shahak would not resign from the cabinet, and the Center Party was the only group that stayed the duration of the Barak government. Milo and former Likud member Yehiel Lazry defected back to the Likud, and Rabin-Pelossof, Lipkin, and Uri Savir formed the New Way after the fall of Barak in February 2001 direct elections for prime minister against Ariel Sharon. By the end of the Knesset only Meridor and Nechama Ronen remained in the faction and the party did not run for the 16th Knesset. Most trace the downfall to Mordechai's indictment for sexual misconduct in 2000.
[edit] Significance
When Mordechai campaigned in 1999 for prime minister, it was rightly believed that he would be the factor that would kill the chance of Netanyahu's reelection. It was not yet known whether the Center Party was simply a group of disgruntled Likud and Labour members, or were progressive ideologues of their parties. The worst problem they encountered was the ascendance of Shas, the Haredi pressure group that drew masses of Mizrahim that otherwise may have voted for Mordechai. Even at its height, the Center was only the fourth largest party in Barak's coalition, after Labour, Shas, and Meretz respectively. They also could not effectively counter Meretz's leftward slant that ultimately led to defection of more moderate allies in the coalition.
When the Sharon government came to power, Lipkin and his New Way broke with the Center and tried to be a part of the opposition, but had minimal effect against the broad coalition that included Likud, Labour, Shas, and numerous other parties across the spectrum. Both Meridor and Lipkin became disillusioned with politics by the time of the 2003 elections, and neither ran. Lipkin later joined the Labour Party in an internal role, and is considered a candidate for the Knesset in 2006.
