Word: hurvitz
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...decision to quit was precipitated in the end by a relatively minor budgetary dispute in which, ironically, moderate and hawk exchanged roles. Weizman was angered that Finance Minister Yigal Hurvitz, a hard-liner who had voted against the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, was advocating a 10% reduction in Israel's military spending. Weizman asserted that he could not be responsible for security if the cuts were approved. When he learned that the cuts would be recommended anyway, he decided to hand in his resignation. He stopped off at Begin's office in Jerusalem before the customary Sunday Cabinet...
Finance Minister Yigael Hurvitz called the currency changeover a "mere technicality," but it was clearly more than that. Psychologically, the government hoped, the introduction of a new and more valuable currency would curb the profligate habits of Israelis, who are accustomed to spending their pounds freely. Emotionally, the government hoped, naming the new currency after the ancient Jewish coin would appeal to the Israelis' sense of history. According to Genesis 23: 2-19, Abraham paid 400 shekels to buy a burial site in Hebron for his wife Sarah. In Roman times the shekel was not only a coin...
Confusion rather than confidence greeted the changeover, which was actually authorized by the Knesset as far back as 1969. Fearful that the new shekels would depreciate as rapidly as the old pounds, Israelis rejected Hurvitz's pleas not to embark on "a buying spree" and converged on Arab money-changers in Israel to convert the new currency into American dollars, British sterling and even Jordanian dinars...