Word: knesset
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...Labor began a courtship of the religious parties. During the "night of the rabbis," one religious party leader after another took center stage to air demands. "We will keep all our options open," declared Rabbi Yitzhak Peretz, whose ultra-Orthodox SHAS Party will send six deputies to the Knesset...
Less than a mile away at Likud headquarters, the party faithful watched the vote count click toward 40 and then stall. The party of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir was not even close to the 61 needed to form a majority government in the 120-seat Knesset. Once again a divided electorate had voted Israel into political stalemate. Likud leaders began feverishly calculating potential coalitions. Declared a Likud activist: "My God, the rabbis have...
When the final results were in, no one was surprised that Likud had taken just 40 Knesset seats to Labor's 39. Broader gauged, Likud and its allies on the right had elected 47 deputies, in contrast to the 50 won by Labor and its possible partners on the left. The real surprise winners were the four religious parties. Increasing their parliamentary representation from twelve to 18 seats, they won the deciding voice in who would run Israel for the next four years. They are most likely to team up with Likud, but only after demanding an extremely high price...
That third bloc could materialize because Israel's cumbersome proportional- representation system allocates disproportionate political power to small parties -- a mere 1% of the popular vote, roughly 20,000 ballots, can yield a Knesset seat. Once again the system prevented the country from electing a strong, united government. As Gad Ya'acobi, a Laborite and Minister of Economics and Planning, noted, "We have institutionalized the tyranny of the minority." To put together a slim majority, Shamir will have to accommodate not only the four religious parties but also three extreme-right secular factions whose platforms all advocate annexing the occupied...
...smiling Shamir told supporters at campaignheadquarters he believed Likud could from a rulingmajority in the 120-seat Knesset, or parliament,with small parties...