Word: hurvitz
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Both Hurvitz and Hammer said they would resign if the other triumphed in their Cabinet battle. Either way, it would signify almost certain doom for the Begin government. If Hurvitz walked out, two other members of his tiny Rafi Party and two or three other political allies would be expected to follow and thus reduce Begin's majority of 63 Knesset members to fewer than 60, not enough to survive a no-confidence motion. A Hammer walkout would be even more devastating, since he would be expected to take with him most or all of the twelve-member delegation...
...stolid, jowly man whose face seems lugubriously appropriate to Israel's dire economic straits, Yigal Hurvitz, 62, who resigned as Finance Minister on Sunday, seems to thrive on political notoriety. Month after month, he had focused attention on himself in the Israeli Cabinet by challenging virtually every discretionary item of the government's planned 1981 budget. His goal: to pare public spending, hold unemployment to a tolerable 41/2% to 5% and, somehow, simultaneously bring the annual 140% inflation rate down to double digits by the end of the year. Understandably, he was not always thanked for his tightfistedness...
...have not always enjoyed political support," says Hurvitz, adding wryly: "If I could have lowered the defense budget-even to the level of NATO say-I would have been king...
...fact,. Israel's defense budget, which amounts to nearly 30% of the country's GNP, has traditionally been almost sacrosanct. Thus when Hurvitz tried to cut military spending by 10% to $2 billion for 1981, he provoked anguished howls not only from the defense community but also from Prime Minister Begin, who has uneasily held a second portfolio as acting Defense Minister ever since the resignation of Ezer Weizman last May. One result of Hurvitz's stand: Begin's Cabinet so far has been unable formally to vote on the entire 1981 budget...
...Hurvitz's toughness and resilience reflect a spartan upbringing and an earlier career as a successful businessman. He is a first cousin of former Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan and, like him, grew up on a pioneering agricultural settlement at Nahalal near Haifa. After a wartime stint as an artilleryman in the British Army's Jewish Brigade, Hurvitz turned his hand to investment. He bought into a farm cooperative, moved on to one small dairy products company after another and demonstrated an unusual knack for turning unprofitable ventures into money earners. Says his brother Amos, a Knesset member...