Word: knesset
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Frustration at what he considered lack of support for his effort to "finish the war" decisively before a cease-fire and a U.S.-sponsored disengagement agreement forced Israel to retreat back across the Suez Canal fueled his interest in politics even more. He was elected to the Knesset in December 1973 and in 1977 joined Begin's first government as Agriculture Minister. There he established a reputation less for his initiatives in farming methods than for his relentless encouragement of Israeli civilian settlement in occupied territories (when he took over the portfolio, there were 70 such settlements with...
...threat to the coalition that Begin stitched together last month out of his conservative Likud bloc and three small religious parties. Since one of them is Agudat Israel, its support is crucial if the Begin coalition is to maintain its razor-thin, one-vote majority in the 120-member Knesset...
...there was little cause for jest. The religious parties quickly showed their clout when vacationing Knesset members were summoned for a special session to discuss the legal issues raised by the disputed project. Members of Agudat Israel and some Deputies from the more moderate National Religious Party have argued that the archaeologists, who have a government license to excavate for relics of King David's 11th century B.C. biblical city, are actually disturbing the graves of a 700-year-old cemetery, thus violating religious...
...What shall be the deciding factor, religious law or secular law?" asked the Labor Party's Yaakov Tzur in the Knesset, raising the larger question before the Begin government. Education and Culture Minister Zevulun Hammer, an NRP leader who is not opposed to the Old City excavation, equivocated in his reply, reflecting the government's dilemma. "We must follow the law of the state," he said, "keeping in mind the respect we must have for the halacha [religious...
...Knesset session, raucous and bitter, lasted for almost 14 hours. Opposition Leader Shimon Peres charged that the coalition talks had been preoccupied with "payoffs for the religious parties and ministries for the power hungry." Begin, who was heckled repeatedly, said angrily of Peres, "The gentleman is a liar; the gentleman is a liar." Reviewing the proceedings, a ranking civil servant in Jerusalem predicted that the new Knesset would be "entertaining, but disgraceful." And from all signs, ineffectual...