Word: meir
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...Kippur War caught Israel in the middle of an election campaign. For nearly a month, Israel's leading politicians, including Premier Golda Meir, 75, had been stumping the country, wooing voters for the Knesset (Parliament) elections that were scheduled for Oct. 30. The war forced postponement of the voting until Dec. 31 and, for a while, reduced domestic political sniping. By last week, however, Israel's ever-voluble politicians had begun loosening their tongues again, providing a preview of the election issues. The outcome could determine how Israel will deal with its Arab neighbors in seeking peace...
...campaign should prove bitter, with hawks more hawkish than ever, doves more dovish. No one expects the voters to defeat the popular Mrs. Meir, a hawk who has constantly urged a tough stance toward the Arabs. Her Labor Party and the leftist Mapam Party, its principal ally in Israel's coalition government, should retain a majority of the Knesset's 120 seats...
Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, though, may have struck out as a potential successor to Golda Meir. Al though he very likely will retain his Cabinet post, his prestige has fallen. Israel's swift victory in the Six-Day War made Dayan a national hero. But the heavy casualties that Israel has suffered this time, plus the fact that the Arab attack took the country by surprise, have now hurt him. Uri Avneri, a longtime Dayan enemy, gleefully said last week: "The Dayan myth is dead...
...least one of Dayan's Cabinet col leagues seemed to agree. Minister of Justice Ya'acov Shimshon Shapiro, fearing the adverse impact that Dayan may have on the Labor Party's chances, last week urged Mrs. Meir to fire the general for failing to prepare the army for the attack. Dayan then offered to resign, but the Premier refused to accept his resignation. Later, the leadership of the Labor bloc censured Shapiro for suggesting that Dayan should go. "I told Moshe Dayan that he enjoys my full confidence," said Mrs. Meir, adding that "lessons to be learned...
...officials concede that the Cabinet did not adequately assess the Arab buildup. In fact, the government vehemently denies the report (TIME, Oct. 22) that in the days before Yom Kippur the Premier and her Cabinet rejected a Dayan proposal to start mobilization in Israel. Insists a spokesman for Mrs. Meir: "Neither mobilization nor pre-emptive strike was discussed prior to the Arab attack. No Minister made such proposals...