Third Way (Israel)
Encyclopedia
The Third Way was a political party in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 in the 1990s.

Background

The party was formed on 7 March 1996 towards the end of the thirteenth Knesset's term
Israeli legislative election, 1992
Elections for the thirteenth Knesset were held in Israel on 23 June 1992. The result was a victory for the left, led by Yitzhak Rabin's Labor Party, though their win was at least partially due to several small right-wing parties narrowly failing to cross the electoral threshold and thus effectively...

 when two MKs, Avigdor Kahalani
Avigdor Kahalani
Brigadier-General Avigdor Kahalani is a former Israeli soldier and politician.-Background:Kahalani was born in Ness Ziona during the Mandate era. He studied at Tel Aviv University, gaining a B.A. in History, before going on to Haifa University, where he studied for an M.A. in Political Science...

 and Emanuel Zisman
Emanuel Zisman
Emanuel Zisman was an Israeli politician and ambassador. He served as a member of the Knesset between 1988 and 1999.-Biography:...

, broke away from the Labour Party. Kahalani and Zisman disagreed with the party's willingness to entertain the idea of withdrawing from the Golan Heights in return for peace with Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

.

The party ran in the 1996 elections
Israeli legislative election, 1996
Elections for the fourteenth Knesset were held in Israel on 29 May 1996. Voter turnout was 79.3%.The 1996 elections included two new changes, both designed to increase the stability of the Knesset. First, the Prime Minister was to be elected on a separate ballot from the remaining members of the...

 and won 96,457 votes. This have them four seats, with Yehuda Harel
Yehuda Harel
Yehuda Harel is a former Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for The Third Way between 1996 and 1999.-Biography:Born in Berlin in 1934, Harel's family made aliyah to Mandate Palestine the following year. He studied philosophy and history at Tel Aviv University, gaining a BA...

 and Professor Alexander Lubotzky
Alexander Lubotzky
Professor Alexander Lubotzky is an Israeli academic and former politician. A former head of the Mathematics Institute at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he served as a member of the Knesset for The Third Way party between 1996 and 1999.-Education:...

 joining Kahalani and Zisman in the Knesset
Knesset
The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...

. They were invited to join Binyamin Netanyahu's Likud
Likud
Likud is the major center-right political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin in an alliance with several right-wing and liberal parties. Likud's victory in the 1977 elections was a major turning point in the country's political history, marking the first time the left had...

-led government and Kahalani was appointed Minister of Internal Security. On 23 March 1999, Zisman left the party to sit as an independent.

The party ran in the 1999 elections, but faced with a massive loss of support, won only 26,290 votes (0.7%), well below the electoral threshold
Election threshold
In party-list proportional representation systems, an election threshold is a clause that stipulates that a party must receive a minimum percentage of votes, either nationally or within a particular district, to obtain any seats in the parliament...

 of 1.5%. After its failure, the party ceased to function, but remained registered. In 2011 its registration was taken over by Independence
Independence (Israeli political party)
Independence is a recently-established political party in Israel. It was launched by Defense Minister Ehud Barak on 17 January 2011 after he and four other Labour Party MKs announced their secession from the caucus...

.

External links

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