Word: herut
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Whenever the outgoing Prime Minister's name was mentioned from the speaker's podium, the noisy crowd of Herut loyalists erupted with cheers of "Begin, Begin." But as the long night of ballot counting passed, the name Shamir began to be heard more often. By 1:40 a.m., the decision was official. Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir, 67, had defeated his only rival for the top party slot, Deputy Prime Minister David Levy, 45, by 436 votes to 302. The rapid sequence of events that had started with Begin's sudden announcement that he would resign seemed...
Almost immediately, the race was on for Begin's job as leader of the Herut Party, the largest faction within the Likud bloc. As eight Herut Cabinet members gathered to discuss the succession, Shamir was the clear front runner. But Levy, a Morocco-born trade union leader, shattered hopes of an early agreement. "There will be more than one candidate," he told his colleagues. Levy had rejected an offer from Shamir to become his Foreign Minister. Levy pressed the group to put the succession to the party's central committee, where, Levy thought, he enjoyed more support...
...effort to check Levy's challenge, Shamir warned his fellow Herut Cabinet members of the dangers that might result from a contentious floor fight at a party meeting. "Time is working against us," he argued. "Labor is standing in ambush in the corner." Former Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, who was forced to resign last February after the independent commission found that he had "made a grave mistake when he ignored the danger of acts of revenge and bloodshed" in the Beirut refugee camps, hinted that if the central committee took up the matter there might be many candidates, "including...
Faced with a standoff, the Herut caucus finally asked Meridor to have a confidential chat with Begin. Since the Prime Minister was thought to favor the more experienced Shamir over his young and relatively dovish rival, any word from Begin would have broken the deadlock. But the Prime Minister told Meridor that "in the matter of choosing a successor, I do not want to interfere." Sharon then declared his support for Shamir. One reason: he may have been offered an important post in a Shamir government, possibly as chairman of the Ministerial Committee for Settlement Programs...
...outcome of the election had seemed to be in doubt, it was clear once the plain white paper ballots were counted that the Herut had decisively opted for the older and politically seasoned Shamir. As soon as the results were announced, Meridor rushed off to telephone Begin...