Word: weizman
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Weizman quits as Defense Minister and precipitates Begin's worst crisis...
...hardly the first political crisis to confront Menachem Begin in three turbulent years in office, but it was unquestionably the most precarious and acrimonious. Jolted by the surprise resignation of Defense Minister Ezer Weizman, the Israeli Prime Minister found himself under unprecedented attack from both the left and right factions of his conservative Likud coalition. His room for maneuver was so restricted he was not even able to reshuffle his Cabinet and replace Weizman for fear of provoking a lethal defection by one side or the other. It appeared that the only way to keep his government from capsizing might...
Even by Israel's freewheeling political standards, Weizman's resignation was a ferocious spectacle. Weizman had run the campaign that catapulted Begin to power; now he accused Begin of "leadership that sows only despondency" and characterized Begin's government as "the deceased." Outraged by his lieutenant's disloyalty, Begin tartly recalled that Weizman had once admitted his own worst enemy was his "big mouth" and accused him of trying "to depose me-both openly as well as by intrigue." Concluded Weizman: "This whole affair has got out of hand with overflow and overkill...
Begin, 67, and Weizman, 56, had long differed in their approach on a number of major issues, particularly the question of a Middle East peace settlement and the future of the Israeli-occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza. Weizman, a Haifa-born Sabra who rose from fighter pilot to commander of the air force, had been a moderate in a Cabinet of hawks. Of late he had made no secret of his frustration over what he saw as Begin's shortsighted failure to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the Camp David accords between Israel...
...decision to quit was precipitated in the end by a relatively minor budgetary dispute in which, ironically, moderate and hawk exchanged roles. Weizman was angered that Finance Minister Yigal Hurvitz, a hard-liner who had voted against the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, was advocating a 10% reduction in Israel's military spending. Weizman asserted that he could not be responsible for security if the cuts were approved. When he learned that the cuts would be recommended anyway, he decided to hand in his resignation. He stopped off at Begin's office in Jerusalem before the customary Sunday Cabinet...