Hetz (political party)

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Hetz (Hebrew: חץ) is a political party in Israel.

1 Name
2 Background and ideology
3 Elections
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Name

As is the case with many political parties in Israel, Hetz is an acronym, standing for the Hebrew for Secular Zionist (Hebrew: חילונית ציונית, Hilonit Tzionit). Hetz is also the Hebrew word for arrow, which is the party's symbol.

[edit] Background and ideology

Hetz was formed in the aftermath of the messy breakup of Shinui towards the end of the 16th Knesset. Avraham Poraz, Shinui's second-in-command after Yosef "Tommy" Lapid was unexpectedly beaten in the race to head the party's list for the 2006 elections by Ron Levintal.

Very unhappy at the result, Poraz decided to break away from Shinui. He was joined by eight other Shinui MKs (out of a total of 15), including Lapid. They formed the Secular Faction for the final few weeks of the Knesset term. Poraz set up Hetz as a new party in January 2006 to contest the elections in March, with Lapid as honorary chairman.

Hetz's policies mirror those of Shinui in being centrist and liberal with a strong secular leaning. The party promises to introduce a constitution, separate church and state, allow civil marriage and repeal many of the country's arrangements that strongly benefit the Ultra-orthodox population (such as large child benefits (many Ultra-orthodox having 10 or more children), exemption from military service and payments to Yeshivas).

[edit] Elections

Hetz's strong secular leanings were emphasised in their campaign adverts, which often portrayed non-Ultra-orthodox Israelis getting a raw deal compared to their Ultra-orthodox counterparts.

However, a combination of the split with Shinui (who also ran in the elections with Levintal as head), the founding of centrists Kadima and Shiunui's lack of progress in implementing their agenda in the previous Knesset (despite being the second largest party in the coalition, hardly any of their campaign pledges had been realised, though arguably Poraz was one of the most effective Interior Ministers Israel had seen) meant that the party had lost much of its supporter base.

Ultimately the party won only 10,113 votes (0.33%), far below the 1.5% electoral threshold. Their only consolation was beating the remains of Shinui, who received only 4,675 votes (0.16%).