Formed in 1999 by former Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai, the aim was to create a group of moderates to challenge Benjamin Netanyahu on the right and opposition leader Ehud Barak's Labor Party on the left.

The Center party platform promoted new thinking about national unity, leadership credibility and strategic planning and hoped to establish new institutional rules to guide public life, including a written constitution.

[1] The party was established on 23 February 1999, towards the end of the 14th Knesset's term, by Mordechai, David Magen and Dan Meridor from Likud, Hagai Meirom and Nissim Zvili of Labor, and Eliezer Sandberg of Tzomet.

However, the most significant ally for Mordechai was General Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, the just-retired army Chief-of-Staff who had been a bitter rival for that post in 1994.

Following Shas leaving the coalition in August 2000, former mayor of Tel Aviv, Roni Milo, was made Minister of Health.