Word: knesset
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Israeli officials insist they had indeed considered the possibility of a backlash by Hizballah. Rabin told the Knesset on Wednesday that the government had taken into account all possible outcomes, "including the event that took place, and worse." He did not say whether it had concluded that an American hostage might be executed or whether it had anticipated the U.S. public outcry over the Higgins outrage...
...Prime Minister's belated attachment to Camp David is particularly curious since he originally denounced the accord as a sellout to the Arabs and abstained when it was approved by the Knesset. Moreover, pushing provisions that Palestinian leaders are sure to reject puts him all the more out of step as he unfurls his peace initiative...
...latest crackdown has renewed the debate among Israelis over the role of the I.D.F. in quelling the rebellion. In the Knesset, Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin came under withering fire from opposition parties on both the right and left. Hard-liners charged the army was not doing enough. Doves attacked Rabin for the mounting death toll. "This policy is not only killing Palestinians but also the souls of Israeli soldiers," said Yossi Sarid of the left-wing Citizen's Rights Movement. Hecklers finally drove Rabin from the parliamentary chamber...
...some 6,000 soldiers patrol the territories. More than 90% are reservists, who owe the army about 60 days of service a year, twice the time served before the intifadeh. Yet they have little time for regular training. "We are eroding the army's resources, physically and intellectually," said Knesset member Sarid. So many normal training routines have been interrupted that, as a U.S. Pentagon official put it, "we fear a deterioration of I.D.F. military capability." American military attaches in close contact with the Israeli army report "moral confusion" at all levels of the I.D.F. "The operation in the occupied...
I.D.F. generals have been among the strongest advocates of a political solution. Chief of Staff Shomron told the Knesset that the I.D.F. could not eradicate the intifadeh because "it expresses the struggle of nationalism." But however much the generals yearn for a political settlement, they prefer to use every weapon available to fight the uprising without legal and political constraints. The army's job, Shomron added, is "to enable the political echelon to negotiate from a position of strength...