Five members of the Democratic Movement for Change (DMC) who support the Begin government’s policies, have formed a new faction within their party as a counterweight to the doveish “Shinooy” (Change) faction that opposes the government.
The five–Akiva Noff, Binyamin Halevi, Assaf Yaguri, Shafik Assad and Shlomo Eliyahu–walked out of the Knesset chamber Monday prior to the vote on the Cabinet’s reply to the American questions on the future of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They were protesting their party’s decision to abstain which prevented them from voting in favor of the Cabinet’s reply.
The new group stressed that its credo is “action, not words.” It is assumed by political observers that if the DMC was to quit the Likud-led coalition, the five members would leave the party. Members of the Shinooy faction believe in that event, the dissenters would defect to Likud.
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