The Israeli press questioned today the wisdom of Premier Levi Eshkol’s move in adding the Finance portfolio to Zeev Sharef’s duties as Commerce and Industry Minister. The Premier’s announcement dealt with a re-shuffle in which Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir is to give up his post to become secretary-general of Mr. Eshkol’s Israel Labor Party, succeeding Mrs. Golda Meir, who rejected all party overtures to cancel her resignation.
Mr. Eshkol said that Mr. Sapir would serve as secretary-general until the next Party convention and that he would remain in the Cabinet as a Minister Without Portfolio. A meeting of the party secretariat next Thursday was expected to confirm the Sapir appointment. Mr. Eshkol will report to the regular Cabinet meeting next Sunday on other Cabinet changes. The evening newspaper Maariv said the double portfolio would be too much for Mr. Sharef and that Mr. Sapir would be too busy as secretary-general to have any time for Cabinet work.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
