Word: knesset
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Flash polls last week indicated that Peres' selection had improved Labor's previously sagging election chances; expectations were that the party might take 43 of the 120 Knesset seats, instead of 39. But the Defense Minister still has two large obstacles to face. One is Rabin's continuing presence on the Labor slate as a candidate for a Knesset seat. Voters will be reminded that the party has not totally repudiated a man whose administration was plagued with scandal and who seemed incapable of handling Israel's endemic inflation. Peres' other problem is the strength...
...voters fancy Yadin's attacks on corruption and demands for reforms in Israel's complex, indirect election system, many are puzzled by the new party's lack of ideological focus. Even so, pollsters predict that the D.M.C. could hold the balance of power in the new Knesset...
Even with a new slate, Labor faces a potential electoral catastrophe in May. Tired, internally riven, battered by earlier scandals, the party was in poor shape for a fight before the latest disaster. Its strength in the 120-seat Knesset has dropped in the past twelve years, from 65 seats to 53. Moreover, the party bears an image of listlessness and indecision...
Later elected to the Knesset under Ben-Gurion's patronage, Peres built a political power base that reinforced his strong position among the military. Still, in 1965 he made enemies by joining Ben-Gurion in a group opposing the government of then Premier Levi Eshkol. Not until 1968 was Peres' faction reintegrated into the Labor Party. Subsequently Peres began broadening his expertise. He held such diverse jobs as Minister for Economic Development of Occupied Territories, Immigration, Transport and Communications and Information. When he lost a close race to Rabin for the premiership in 1974, Peres accepted the post...
...materialistic scandals similar to those in larger and older nations from which less purity of purpose is expected? The theories range from the cupidity that is inevitable in a long-entrenched government to Israel's "clan mentality" that blurs the dividing line between public purse and private pocket. Knesset Member Shmuel Tamir also points out, "We have people in charge of budgets with hundreds of thousands of Israeli pounds who receive very small salaries, hardly enough for the average man to live on. You can't expect a whole society to be watertight, idealistic and dedicated...