Word: shamir
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...last Wednesday morning, when the former Defense Minister told Shimon Peres, leader of the Labor Party, that he would join a Labor-led government. Peres was jubilant. For more than two weeks he had been trying to scrape together a coalition government to succeed that of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and his Likud bloc. Starting with the 44 Knesset seats his party had won in July's national elections, Peres also enjoyed the allegiance of two small parties, bringing the total to 50. But he still remained shy of the 61 needed for a parliamentary majority. By winning...
What kind of coalition Peres might form remained uncertain. Two days after the Weizman coup, the Labor leader met with Shamir at Jerusalem's King David Hotel for further talks on the possibility of forming a national unity government. Though the two sides have been discussing such a step for almost three weeks, Shamir so far has refused to accept Peres as the Prune Minister in a Labor-Likud union. After the meeting both men agreed that progress had been made, but a pact remained elusive. Likud and Labor representatives also met to settle differences over foreign policy. Though...
...Labor carried a large price tag. Peres promised him his choice of becoming either Foreign Minister or Finance Minister, along with safe seats for Weizman and the two other Yahad members in the next Knesset election. Likud officials, who reportedly offered to rotate the office of Prime Minister between Shamir and Weizman if the maverick would side with them, were incensed by the compact. Deputy Prime Minister David Levy accused Labor of acting like "thieves in the night," while other Cabinet ministers labeled Weizman a "traitor" and a "backstabber." The new Labor ally dismissed the charges, pointing out that Likud...
Labor Party Leader Shimon Peres was a man of two minds last week, after President Chaim Herzog charged him with the task of forming a new government. Peres had to decide whether to join forces with outgoing Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, leader of the Likud bloc, in a broad, bipartisan coalition, or try to build a narrower alliance of his own by enticing some of the 13 smaller parties. He conferred twice with leaders of the National Religious Party in an effort to pick up enough seats for a Laborled majority; he also met twice with Shamir for talks...
...notion of a Labor-Likud coalition enjoys enthusiastic public support. But Peres may not be willing to pay the price that the Likud has set for its cooperation: it wants Shamir to stay on as Prime Minister. There are also deep differences over other issues. Labor supporters were angered last week when, with backing from the Shamir government, four Jewish families established a new settlement in the town of Hebron. Labor favors a freeze on settlements in the occupied territories, and the surprise move was certain to add another stumbling block to unity talks...