Word: knesset
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...Menachem Begin's finest hour. During a rowdy session of the Knesset that was televised nationally last week, Israel's Premier lost his temper in a debate with Labor Party Leader Shimon Peres about Peres' talks with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in Vienna, came close to weeping, and tore up pieces of paper. At a closed session of Labor delegates, even former Premier Golda Meir wondered aloud whether Begin had lost his senses. Meanwhile, a new "denial unit" in Begin's office, created to offset critical press stories about him, was working full time to explain...
...April, the government introduced legislation that would automatically exempt women from the army if they declared they had religious objections. The move encountered stiff opposition in the Knesset from the Labor and Shelli parties and from one of Likud's key coalition partners, the Democratic Movement for Change. At the same time, Agudat Israel threatened to quit Begin's coalition if the bill did not pass...
...claiming religious scruples would be exempt "without further examination by any board." In the past year the Defense Ministry has already begun operating in the spirit of the proposed law. Result: a 9% rise in exemptions for draft-age women. A report by the Defense Ministry submitted to the Knesset this month predicted that 30% of the 25,283 women due to be drafted this year will claim religious exemptions if the unamended bill passes...
...Knesset will almost certainly pass the compromise bill this week. Meanwhile, 20,000 nonreligious high school girls who face conscription after graduation demonstrated in Tel Aviv last week to protest making it easy for draft dodgers. Teen-agers throughout the country circulated petitions demanding equality in the conscription system and urging that religious girls be required to do some useful nonmilitary service for the nation. Unexpected support for the opposition came from the Premier's wife, Aliza Begin, whose two daughters, Hasya, 32, and Leah, 30, served in the Israel Defense Forces. "Why should my daughter be drafted...
That was bad news for practically everybody; even within Israel it was widely criticized. Two of Begin's 19 Cabinet colleagues abstained from the Knesset vote, and a third, Defense Minister Ezer Weizman, stormed out of the meeting shouting and cursing. The decision, in his view, "will lead us all to another round of wars. I will go and prepare the army for the next war." The Labor opposition was also sharply critical. "What is the point of giving an answer that nobody will accept?" demanded Opposition Leader Shimon Peres. "Who needs a decision that by its very nature...