Word: knesset
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...embattled Menachem Begin accepted near demise of his government last week and called for new elections. The Minister's move climaxed weeks of indecision following the collapse of his Likud coalition over a hotly disputed pay raise for the country'sschoolteachers. It set Israel's Knesset to squabbling over the precise timing of the election. It also sent the country's political parties scrambling for advantage in what promises to become one of Israel's most heated and bitterly contested campaigns...
Next day the Cabinet met again to discuss whether to present its own bill to the Knesset for an early election, which would save Begin and his government from the ignominy of being forced to resign on an opposition motion of no confidence. The government would thus be able to stay in place through the election campaign. Most Cabinet members favored this comparatively graceful course, but it was decided to hold off until a small clique of diehard Begin supporters-led by Sharon and Housing Minister David Levy-had time to embark on their last-ditch exercise in vote bartering...
...happened, the Begin government's unbecoming exit was even accompanied by a last-minute scandal. The Knesset voted to lift the parliamentary immunity of Cabinet Minister Aharon Abuhatzeira, head of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, so that he could face criminal indictment. Abuhatzeira had been under investigation for months as an alleged recipient of bribes in return for having funneled government funds to phantom religious institutions...
...unrelated incident, the Knesset was also shaken by the assassination of its only Bedouin member, Sheik Hamad Abu Rabiya, 51, a courtly, popular legislator who was gunned down in his car outside Jerusalem's Holyland Hotel. He was the first member of the Knesset to be murdered in its 32-year history. Police subsequently arrested five suspects, including two men who were members of the Druze religious sect, which has often been at odds with the Bedouins...
...deeply worried about the prospect of the country being in the hands of a rudderless government. Said Meron Medzini, a lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem: "We have here a terrible crisis of confidence. There are some people who are worried about the future of democracy." Said Knesset Member Uri Avneri, a longtime critic of the Israeli political Establishment: "The government is breaking apart. It's like metal fatigue...