Tkuma was established by Hanan Porat and Zvi Hendel in 1998. The pair left the National Religious Party in reaction to the Wye Memorandum Almost immediately after the creation of Tkuma, it joined together with Moledet and Herut – The National Movement, to form the National Union, a big tent of religious and secular far right parties in Israel which won four seats in the 1999 elections, with only one of those seats going to Tkuma. These elections were a failure for the right-wing bloc, and were won by Ehud Barak, leaving the National Union and Tkuma in the opposition. In February 2000, Yisrael Beiteinu joined the National Union alongside Tkuma, and the two parties joined Ariel Sharon's first government in 2001. One year later, Tkuma and the rest of the National Union left Sharon's government over disagreements over the handling of the Second Intifada. For the 2003 elections, the National Union kept its alliance with Yisrael Beiteinu, with its increased support helping to win seven seats for the entire list, and two for Tkuma. The party was included in Ariel Sharon's coalition, alongside Likud, Shinui, the National Religious Party and Yisrael BaAliyah. Because of tensions over the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, National Union ministersBinyamin Elon and Avigdor Lieberman were sacked and the party left the coalition. However, the National Union was bolstered by the addition of Ahi, which had split off from the National Religious Party when they decided to remain in the coalition. Before the 2006 elections, the alliance between the National Union and Yisrael Beiteinu was dissolved, and a new alliance between the National Union and the National Religious Party was formed, which won nine seats, two of which were allocated to Tkuma and taken by Hendel and Uri Ariel. On 3 November 2008, ahead of the 2009 elections, Tkuma faced a crisis. The party itself announced that it would unite with Ahi, the National Religious Party, and Moledet to form a new right-wing party, which was later named the Jewish Home. However, around half of the former Tkuma members later left the new party to re-establish Tkuma and rejoin the National Union alongside Moledet, Hatikva, and Eretz Yisrael Shelanu. In the elections themselves, the National Union got four seats, with Tkuma getting two seats. Ahead of the 2013 elections, the National Union split, with all member parties except for Tkuma splitting off to form Otzma LeYisrael, leaving Tkuma as the only party left in the National Union. Tkuma proceeded to change its name to "National Union–Tkuma". The party opted to run as part of the Jewish Home list for the 2013 elections. The joint list won 12 seats, four of which were nominated by the Tkuma central committee. The party decided to continue its alliance with the Jewish Home for the 2015 Knesset elections, taking the 2nd, 8th, 13th, and 17th spots on the joint list. The Jewish Home dropped to eight seats in that election. In 2019, Bezalel Smotrich took over party leadership, winning party elections in a landslide against Ariel. The party's secretary general is Ofir Sofer. Ahead of the April 2019 elections, the party joined with the Jewish Home and Otzma Yehudit to create the Union of Right-Wing Parties, which won five seats in the elections, two of which went to National Union–Tkuma. Ahead of the September 2019 elections, Tkuma and the Jewish Home agreed to form an alliance with the New Right called Yamina, with Tkuma leader Smotrich receiving the third spot on the joint list. Yamina officially split on 10 October 2019 into two Knesset factions, the New Right and the Jewish Home–National Union. For the 2020 elections, Otzma Yehudit and The Jewish Home agreed on 20 December to run together, in an alliance later named the United Jewish Home. Smotrich was critical of the move, stating that it was unlikely that the alliance would pass the electoral threshold. Tkuma, The Jewish Home and the New Right reformed Yamina on 15 January 2020. On 22 April 2020, it was reported that Yamina leader Naftali Bennett was now "considering all options" for Yamina's political future, including departing from Netanyahu's government, which had just agreed to a coalition government with leader of the oppositionBlue and White party Benny Gantz, and joining the opposition. Bennett was said to be unhappy with the new coalition government's decision to hold back on the issue of judicial reform. On 14 May 2020, The Jewish Home's only Knesset member Rafi Peretz ended his status as a member of Yamina and agreed to join Netanyahu's new government as well. On 15 May, Tkuma, along with the New Right, split with Netanyahu and made the Yamina alliance a member of the opposition. On 17 May 2020, Bennett met with Gantz, who also succeeded him as Defence Minister, and declared that both Yamina parties were now "head held high" members of the opposition.
Ideology
Tkuma is against territorial concessions. Some members support the annexation of the entire West Bank, though the official policy of the Jewish Home parliamentary faction, of which the party aligned with in the 2013, 2015, and 2019 Israeli elections, supports only annexation of Area C of the West Bank. The party is considered to be far-right. The party is opposed to recognition of same-sex couples on a religious basis.
