Word: yisrael
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...Histadrut labor federation saw it, the burden of the reforms fell on the nation's workers rather than employers. Meeting with Peres before the strike, Histadrut Chief Yisrael Kessar acidly asked the Labor Party leader, "How did your hand keep from shaking when you signed a 30% erosion of wages?" Histadrut, whose 1.5 million members account for 90% of the nation's work force, then called a 24-hour general strike. Violent demonstrations broke out in Jerusalem, where protesters burned tires and shouted antigovernment slogans...
Peres is also pursuing alliances with several tiny religious parties in the hope of achieving a Knesset majority without Likud's help. Peres is especially lobbying the ultraorthodox Agudat Yisrael (two seats) and the National Religious Party (four seats), a mainstream Orthodox group that is holding out for the Ministries of Religious Affairs, Education and Interior. Yet the National Religious Party complicated Peres' task last week by announcing that it would join only a wider coalition that included Likud...
Orthodox rabbis already have wide civil powers. They approve all marriages, divorces and adoptions. Their political clout, moreover, grew during the Begin years. In order to win the support of Agudat Yisrael, the religious party that had four sometimes crucial seats in the Knesset, Begin made several concessions. He forbade El Al flights on the Sabbath, losing an estimated $30 million a year, and pushed through a law limiting autopsies, which violate Orthodox beliefs. Begin also agreed to push the highly controversial "Who is a Jew?" legislation, which would amend Israeli law to ensure that the only converts granted citizenship...
...election is also a referendum on the legacy of a man who has virtually vanished from public sight: Menachem Begin. Whether proclaiming his dream of Eretz Yisrael, whose biblical boundaries include the West Bank and Gaza Strip, or defending the controversial 1982 war in Lebanon, Begin hewed to a pugnaciously righteous course that evoked passionate reaction from supporter and foe alike, at home and abroad. Without disavowing Begin's policies, Shamir has tried to steer a course that appears more moderate, at least in tone. Peres, who, like Shamir, possesses little of Begin's fiery charisma, opposes much of what...
Political analysts were divided over just what had happened. There was some speculation among Knesset members that the defectors might have come from two tiny parties in the coalition, the ultrareligious Agudat Yisrael and Tami, an ethnic party of Sephardic Jews. Another explanation might be that some members simply preferred a man of Herzog's stature. Said Labor Leader Shimon Peres: "We were wise enough to present the best candidate...