Word: weizman
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...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...
Strained though the relations between them are, Weizman and Begin cooperated on one project last week that demonstrated the explosive tension in the Middle East. As Begin was flying back to Israel Friday morning, Weizman launched Israeli forces on a seaborne raid against a headquarters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the southern Lebanese town of Sarafand. The Israelis blew up houses where they said terrorists were being trained. Palestinian sources reported that 18 people were killed: six P.F.L.P. fighters, three children and nine adult civilians...