Word: likud
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Immediately after hearing Rabin's message, the Bush Administration moved to reconstruct ties that were badly strained under Rabin's predecessor, Yitzhak Shamir of the right-wing Likud party. Bush dispatched Secretary of State James Baker to meet with the new Israeli administration and arrange for the next round of regional peace talks, scheduled to take place in Rome in a month or two. Given Rabin's pledge to slow construction of settlements in the occupied territories, Israeli and American officials expressed confidence that Washington would approve at least part of the $10 billion in loan guarantees Jerusalem is seeking...
Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir was virtually catatonic as he gazed at the TV screen, learning for the first time the results of exit polls that accurately predicted his Likud party's drubbing in national elections last week. The rival Labor Party took 44 of the 120 Knesset seats (vs. 39 in the previous parliament), Likud a pitiful 32 (vs. 40) -- its worst performance since the party's first outing, in 1973. The poor showing prompted Shamir to announce he would retire from politics soon, setting the stage for a fierce battle for the Likud leadership. One contender, Defense Minister Moshe...
Labor's victory reflected a pervasive discontent with the Likud, which has led Israeli governments for all but two of the past 15 years. Economic stagnation brought unemployment to a record 11.5% in the first quarter of the year, which in turn slowed emigration from the former Soviet Union to a trickle. Worse, the Likud didn't seem to care. To many voters, the government's main interest seemed to be pouring money into Jewish settlements in the occupied territories...
...principal source of the rampant indifference is that nobody expects the June 23 voting to really change anything. For some time, the opposition Labor Party has been running well ahead of Shamir's Likud in the polls; the latest surveys give the parties, respectively, 42 and 33 places in the 120-seat Knesset. But because neither organization has anything close to a majority, some kind of coalition is inevitable, as has always been the case in Israeli elections. And when the big two parties are grouped with their natural alignment partners, they are running neck and neck...
...result may be another national-unity government, with Labor and the Likud sharing power, as they have already done twice in the past, after tight elections in 1984 and 1988. With Labor likely to be the larger grouping, Rabin may replace Shamir as Prime Minister. But the two men's policies are so similar that such a prospect elicits little excitement. No wonder many voters are more interested in knowing whether Victoria, the Caracas fashion mogul, will discover that her new model, Crystal, is actually the daughter she conceived with a priest-in-training and gave up for adoption long...