Word: shamir
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Shamir gets off to a shaky start...
...auspicious beginning. No sooner had Yitzhak Shamir been sworn in as Israel's seventh Prime Minister than his new government was engulfed in an economic crisis. Four days later, Finance Minister Yoram Aridor, a holdover from outgoing Prime Minister Menachem Begin's Cabinet, became the government's first casualty. With the opposition Labor Party calling for a vote of no confidence, there were serious doubts as to how long Shamir's fragile majority would hold together...
...coalition had not been easy to forge. Although the Herut Party had nominated Shamir to succeed Begin as its leader on Sept. 2, it took Shamir nearly three weeks of wrangling to win the support of the small parties whose backing had been essential to Begin. As the haggling went on, the economic crisis deepened. The Bank of Israel announced that the country's foreign debt had increased by $550 million, to $21.5 billion, in the first six months of 1983 and that foreign currency reserves had dropped for the third straight month to a mere $230 million...
...presented his Cabinet to the Knesset, Shamir pledged to continue his predecessor's policies. Labor Party Leader Shimon Peres immediately went on the offensive. What would continue, he said, would be the "twofold tragedy" of the Begin government: economic disaster and the war in Lebanon...
...first evening after his swearing-in, Shamir summoned his Cabinet for an emergency session on the economy. The meeting did not break up until 6:30 the following morning. The result: a 23% devaluation of the shekel and a sharp cut in food subsidies, meaning an average price increase of 50% on basic items like bread, milk and meat. Israelis rushed to stores and supermarkets to stock up before the prices took effect, and long lines formed at service stations in anticipation of a 23% hike in gasoline prices...