Word: knesset
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Frustration at what he considered lack of support for his effort to "finish the war" decisively before a cease-fire and a U.S.-sponsored disengagement agreement forced Israel to retreat back across the Suez Canal fueled his interest in politics even more. He was elected to the Knesset in December 1973 and in 1977 joined Begin's first government as Agriculture Minister. There he established a reputation less for his initiatives in farming methods than for his relentless encouragement of Israeli civilian settlement in occupied territories (when he took over the portfolio, there were 70 such settlements with...
...threat to the coalition that Begin stitched together last month out of his conservative Likud bloc and three small religious parties. Since one of them is Agudat Israel, its support is crucial if the Begin coalition is to maintain its razor-thin, one-vote majority in the 120-member Knesset...
...criticism over its bombing of civilian areas in Lebanon. Its leadership is deeply torn over how to come to terms with Israel's Arab neighbors. Yet these crucial matters scarcely figured in the negotiations between Begin and his partners: the National Religious Party, with six members of the Knesset; the ultraconservative Agudat Israel, with four; and the newly organized TAMI, with three. Last week the coalition released an agreement, a sort of party platform, containing 83 clauses. Most were concessions that the religious parties had extracted from Begin in return for their support...
Begin's government won its first vote of confidence in the Knesset last week, but already the frictions were beginning to appear. Housing Minister David Levy, a popular figure in the Likud, said that he would refuse to join the new Cabinet...
...Knesset session, raucous and bitter, lasted for almost 14 hours. Opposition Leader Shimon Peres charged that the coalition talks had been preoccupied with "payoffs for the religious parties and ministries for the power hungry." Begin, who was heckled repeatedly, said angrily of Peres, "The gentleman is a liar; the gentleman is a liar." Reviewing the proceedings, a ranking civil servant in Jerusalem predicted that the new Knesset would be "entertaining, but disgraceful." And from all signs, ineffectual...