Word: likud
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...that, comes a bitter and very public dispute between the leaders of the country's national unity government about the next step in Middle East diplomacy. Both Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, head of the Likud bloc, and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, the Labor Party leader, are increasingly worried that Israelis will judge the government's greatest failure to be its inability to achieve a breakthrough in relations with its Arab neighbors. Yet the two men are at loggerheads over a peace strategy. Shamir holds out for direct talks, maintaining that the only way to guarantee enduring peace is to negotiate...
...criticizing officials of the Labor Party for their roles in Iranscam; and Peres and Rabin, both former Prime Ministers, were backing Shamir's position that the less said about Pollard, the better it would be for Israel. That cozy arrangement, made possible by the 30-month-old coalition between Likud and Labor, made some Israelis uncomfortable, and a few wags began to refer to the trio of Prime Ministers as the "Gang of Three...
There are arguments on the other side. Shamir, as Prime Minister, will be more able to shape the public debate, and his agenda is not the same as Peres'. While Likud was junior partner, Peres had special leverage, since Likud had a keen interest in avoiding the break-up of the government...
Moreover, Likud is not the most hawkish party in Israel, nor is Shamir the most extreme member of Likud. For reasons of party politics, Shamir may opt for a noisy show of ideological fervor on West Bank settlements. Indeed, already he has called for "Zionist economics" (mirroring the equally vague "Islamic economics...
Will the National Unity Government last? It surprised many that it endured the rotation, given Labor's inherent lack of interest in implementing the agreement. Labor does not have Likud's incentive to accomodate the Prime Minister of a rival party. Frictions will increase...