Word: likud
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Dates: during 1973-1973
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...Labor Party needs all the unity it can muster as it begins campaigning for the Dec. 31 Knesset (parliament) election. Israeli newspaper polls show Labor fast losing ground to the opposition Likud coalition, which is led by such hawks as Menachem Begin and Major General Ariel ("Arik") Sharon. Until the election returns are in, the Arabs will have no assurance that any compromises made by Israel's present government will be accepted by the next one-especially if Likud makes an impressive showing. Moreover, Israeli delegates will hardly dare take a stance in Geneva that could cost them votes...
...history. It was generally acknowledged that Golda Meir's Mapai Coalition, Israel's labor party, would win the elections at the end of October and continue in power. Mapai has never failed in an election in the 25 year history of the state But it also appeared that Likud, a rightist ultranationalist faction, had a strong chance of gaining a solid foothold in the parliament, due in part to the support it hoped to receive from newly arrived immigrants, particularly Soviet Jews...
...answer. In Israeli elections the voter casts his ballot for a specific party rather than an individual. The parties are represented in the Parliament according to the national percentages they receive; the winning party designates a prime minister. The most likely possibility is that a very substantial shift to Likud will take place, perhaps not quite large enough to elect a prime minister, but certainly sufficient to create a veto power for Likud in the Parliament. A public opinion poll published last week in Haaretz, Israel's leading independent newspaper, showed that if the election were held now, Mapai...
Such a situation would be quite unusual in Israel's parliamentary democracy. The leader of Likud is Menahem Begin, who served as commander of the anti-British terrorist organization, the Irgun, during the British Mandate over Palestine. Begin is an advocate of annexation of every inch of occupied Arab territory, and it would be interesting to see his response to any American-Soviet peace initiative calling for Israeli withdrawal...
Another personality who will represent Likud in the Parliament is the hero of this war, General Arik Sharon, who engineered the crossing of Israeli forces onto the West Bank of the Suez Canal. Sharon has already accused the Chiefs of Staff of trying to delay his plan for crossing the canal, and may be subject to courtmartial proceedings during election time. He has become extremely popular in Israel; posters and painted signs refer to him as "Arik Sharon, King of the Jews." An avowed rightist, Sharon stands with Begin on issues of security and has even on occassion referred...