Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion presided at the weekly Cabinet meeting today, presumably for the last time. The Premier, who resigned from his post last Sunday, expressed the hope that the new Cabinet would be formed this week with the same composition as the outgoing one.
Premier-designate Levi Eshkol indicated today that he expects to be able to present the new Cabinet to the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, on Tuesday. This indication was given after Mapam rejected this evening a bid initiated by Achdut Avoda to join the coalition under the basic policy lines of the present government.
A Mapam spokesman said tonight that joining the Coalition on the same principles that formed the basis for the Ben-Gurion Government would mean giving its sanction to all acts of the previous Government, which Mapam is not prepared to do.
The Cabinet today also discussed a number of routine matters and decided to issue a stamp commemorating the late President Izhak Ben Zvi. Another Cabinet decision calls for cutting the current government budget by 10, 000, 000 pounds ($3, 334, 000) to cover unforeseen expenditures.
A special postmark was put into use today at the post offices to mark the 25th anniversary of the execution by the British mandatory power of Shlomo Ben Yossef, the young Revisionist who became the first Jew to be hanged for a political crime in Palestine for many centuries.
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