Word: shamir
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...Begin's likely successor, Shamir faces formidable problems...
Whenever the outgoing Prime Minister's name was mentioned from the speaker's podium, the noisy crowd of Herut loyalists erupted with cheers of "Begin, Begin." But as the long night of ballot counting passed, the name Shamir began to be heard more often. By 1:40 a.m., the decision was official. Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir, 67, had defeated his only rival for the top party slot, Deputy Prime Minister David Levy, 45, by 436 votes to 302. The rapid sequence of events that had started with Begin's sudden announcement that he would resign seemed...
...Shamir's first challenge will be to hold together the Likud coalition, a fragile alliance of seven factions. His political mettle will also be tested by a formidable list of domestic and foreign problems. Not only have the deaths of 517 Israeli soldiers in Lebanon over the past year failed to guarantee peace, but the price tag for the occupation of Lebanon comes to more than $1 million a day. This burden comes at a time when inflation is racing along at a triple-digit rate and foreign debt has reached $20.9 billion. Israel has also gone through...
...leading eligible candidate in the present Cabinet is Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir, a close ally of Begin's. But Shamir ranks in stature behind another Cabinet member who is not eligible for the job because he is not a member of the Knesset: Defense Minister Moshe Arens. If Begin's resignation caused a political deadlock that resulted in new elections, and Arens were to win a seat, he would stand a strong chance of emerging as leader, providing the Likud did well at the polls...
Essentially, the U.S.-Israeli talks boiled down to a series of reassurances. Aware that the Begin government would not back away from its decision, the Administration did not attempt to persuade the Israelis to forgo or postpone their plans. In return, Arens and Shamir agreed to redeploy Israeli troops in an orderly manner, coordinating with the Lebanese army so that it could move into the newly evacuated areas. Said a State Department official: "The Israelis assured us that they have no territorial ambitions in Lebanon and that the projected redeployment is in no way intended to contribute to divisions...