Word: knesset
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Begin won an initial vote of confidence in the 120-seat Knesset with a tenuous majority. He can count on the support of 63 members: 43 from his own Likud bloc, 16 from Israel's two right-wing religious parties, former General Ariel Sharon and a colleague who represent the conservative Shlomzion Party, new Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan and one independent. Begin had hoped to build a sturdier and broader-based coalition by getting the support of the centrist, 15-member Democratic Movement for Change. Talks between the parties bogged down on foreign policy. To the dismay...
...Arabs. Some Washington, and even Israeli, observers were pleased that ex-General Sharon, another outspoken hawk, had to settle for the Agriculture Ministry instead of the job he wanted: a Cabinet-level position in charge of antiterrorist activity. Dayan sits at Begin's right hand in the Knesset and is already mentioned as heir apparent to Begin, who was hospitalized with a heart attack last March. This is bound to create conflict with Weizman, who last year told friends that he would be Israel's next Premier...
...government itself-awaits the lengthy consultations that will start this week when Begin formally accepts President Ephraim Katzir's invitation to form a new government. Begin picked up more political support last week: retired Major General Ariel Sharon, a hard-line nationalist, announced that the two Knesset members of his Shlomzion party would support the new government...
...announcement was political dynamite. In the first place, it shook up the already volatile Likud, which won 43 seats in the elections but needs the support of at least 18 members of other parties to have a fragile but workable majority in the 120-member Knesset. Begin apparently chose Dayan without consulting any of his colleagues, and many were furious. In addition, one of Likud's potential coalition partners, the new Democratic Movement for Change, temporarily broke off talks with Likud. With the possibility of a revolt on his hands, Begin called a weekend meeting of the Likud executive...
...reaction from the Labor Party to Dayan's defection was one of outrage. "This is political prostitution and betrayal," cried Israel Kargman, chairman of the Knesset finance committee. "He has caused us trouble for years," snapped Labor's Jerusalem leader, Uzi Baram. "Let Likud enjoy him now." Labor Party Leader Shimon Peres was reported to be "stunned"; he and Dayan were political allies for 25 years, and left Labor together in 1965; they rejoined the party three years later. Labor officials also blamed the Carter Administration for Begin's nomination of Dayan as well as the Likud...