Word: shamir
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Agreement had seemed within reach so often, only to slip away, that no one seemed surprised when the ceremony was delayed for five hours on Thursday. After all, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Shamir had been up until 5 a.m. negotiating the last detail. Finally, at 3:45 p.m., the two met again in the Knesset basement. Sitting at a blue cloth-covered table and surrounded by colleagues, Labor Leader Peres and Likud Chief Shamir signed the accord that established a national unity government. Cognac glasses in hand, the new partners toasted the accomplishment with cries of "L 'chayim...
...polls, the country finally had a new government. Since the coalition controlled 97 out of 120 Knesset seats, the accord was easily approved by the legislature, and Peres was sworn in as Prime Minister. He will be the country's leader during the next 25 months while Shamir serves as Foreign Minister and acting Prime Minister; for the following 25 months, the two men will switch jobs. Yitzhak Rabin, who was Labor Prime Minister from 1974 to 1977, will be Defense Minister during the entire 50-month term. Yitzhak Modai, until last week the Likud government's Energy...
...right up to the final minute. Peres, who had until Sept. 16 to form a government, faced growing opposition within his own ranks. Seven Knesset allies, including the tiny leftist party, Mapam, refused to link themselves with their longtime ideological foes in Likud and withdrew from the Labor Alignment. Shamir had his share of headaches as well. At a party meeting to approve the list of Likud ministers, Sharon warned against yielding to Labor on certain issues, including the pace of Jewish settlements on the occupied West Bank. Then a squabble developed over whether the National Religious Party (N.R.P.) with...
That was good news for the Israeli public, which had been waiting for weeks for something to happen. Ever since the July elections, in which Labor won 44 seats and Likud 41, Peres had been trying to put together a government. But neither he nor Shamir, the head of Likud, had managed to attract enough support from the country's smaller parties to assemble the necessary bloc of 61 or more seats in the 120-member Knesset. From the beginning there had been talk of forming a unity government between the two major parties. Last week, despite a flurry...
Under the plan, Peres, 61, will serve as Prime Minister for the first 25 months, while Shamir will become Acting Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. During the next 25 months after that, assuming that the government holds together, the two men will exchange jobs. Yitzhak Rabin, who was Labor Prime Minister from 1974 to 1977, will serve as Defense Minister during the full 50-month term, and the Finance Ministry will go to a Likud member, probably outgoing Energy Minister Yitzhak Moda'i. Former Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, who was a Minister Without Portfolio in the Shamir government...