Word: knesset
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...these problems are reflected, some more bitterly than others, in the current election campaign, which will culminate in a vote for a new Knesset-and with it a new government. The shifting public opinion as the campaign built up was itself a significant measure of national uncertainty about the country's direction. Last January, when the Likud coalition government was forced to call early elections after a protracted period of infighting and noisy public walkouts by key Cabinet ministers, a Labor election victory under Party Leader Shimon Peres seemed almost assured. Polls showed, in fact, that Labor might obtain...
...turns of Old Soldier Dayan's political maneuvers. Early last month he announced the formation of his own Movement for National Renewal. As an independent candidate Dayan appeared to be a possible spoiler in the campaign, able to attract as many as 20 or 25 seats in the Knesset. But by last week the latest poll showed him taking only four seats. One possible explanation for his rapid slippage: voters' memories of a comparably idealistic third party in 1977, which generated high hopes but quickly split into bickering factions...
...election were already won and set about choosing who among them would be the winners. That, in Israel's complicated proportional representation, involves elaborate wheeling and dealing to dole out ranks on the party list, the 120-candidate roster from which the voters will select the new Knesset members. Because the percentage of the popular vote determines how many on the list will be elected, places at the top are the prizes. The jockeying for position can be fierce. One party heavyweight, Abba Eban, a former Foreign Minister, was previously No. 2 after Peres...
...spot Peres last week placed a new name: Shoshana Arbelli-Almozlino, 55, a hawkish Knesset member and teacher, who went to Israel from Iraq. It was a shrewd choice, designed to give Labor more appeal among women and non-European Jews and to counter Peres' own relatively dovish image. In a meeting last week to hammer out the key top half of their final list, Peres sounded oddly hawkish himself. He accused Begin of inconsistency in regard to the occupied territories. "I don't accept Begin's statements," he said at one point. "He says...
...annual inflation rate, Aridor, 42, came up with a savvy political response: drastic cuts in the country's steep excise and import taxes on autos, color television sets, washing machines and other consumer products. While polls in January predicted an absolute Labor majority in the 120-seat Knesset, they now show Labor with only 45 seats, Begin's Likud with 33 and various splinter groups with 42. The new polls undoubtedly give Begin more confidence as he faces such unexpected bombshells as the tart revelations of his onetime Defense Minister, Ezer Weizman. Excerpts from a Weizman memoir, read...