Word: knesset
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Since neither of the two large groups even approached a majority in the 120-member Knesset, Shamir and Peres immediately began to woo the leaders of 13 smaller parties in the hope of forming a coalition that could muster at least 61 seats. Day after day, potential allies trooped in to state their conditions to Shamir and Peres. Rarely had the process seemed so fractured and complex. Though Labor had won the most seats, Likud appeared to be in a slightly better position to piece together a government because the splinter parties that are ideologically closer to Likud fared better...
...while Yahad, a party founded last March by the popular Ezer Weizman, who resigned as Begin's Defense Minister in 1980, won three. The Kach movement, an ultranationalist group headed by Brooklyn-born Rabbi Meir Kahane, who retains his U.S. citizenship,* won its first seat. "In my first [Knesset] speech, I am going to make an issue of throwing out the Arabs," he said. "We will drive this country crazy. We will make this country Jewish again...
...bemused to read that a member of Israel's Knesset feels that U.S. aid is causing Israel to lose its independence. He should know that many Americans resent the billions given to his country from our taxes. An alien theocracy is the antithesis of American democracy and all it stands...
...encounter mirrored the sluggish campaign. Opinion also seems becalmed: according to polls published in the Jerusalem Post last week, Peres and his Labor party still enjoy a cozy lead over Shamir's Likud bloc, 39.5% to 29.5%. If that gap holds, Labor could win 47 of the Knesset's 120 seats, vs. 35 for Likud...
...elected, but Peres quickly turned aside the offer as an "election ploy." Nonetheless, the winner almost certainly will need the support of several small parties to build a coalition. Shamir could glean bright news from polls that show Tehiya, an ultra-right-wing Likud partner with three Knesset members, picking up six or seven seats. If the election is taper thin, that could be enough to tip the balance in Shamir's favor...