Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion does not intend to resign from the Government on account of “L’affaire Lavon,” a source close to the Cabinet declared here today. However, the Premier was reported to have insisted to the Cabinet yesterday that a special judicial commission be created to establish the facts that led to the “unfortunate” events in 1955 when Pinhas Lavon, now secretary-general of Israel’s Federation of Labor, resigned from his post as Minister of Defense.
(With secrecy, due to security reasons, imposed in Israel in regard to details concerning the Lavon issue, London dispatches reported today that it seems now that members of Israel’s defense forces may have “achieved in 1955 the ousting of a Defense Minister whom they disliked.” The entire affair, stated the Times of London, “has shocked Israel, which has been an island of democracy in a region where the military putsch is a frequent occurrence.”)
The Cabinet, it was learned, is insisting that it be furnished the full text of the report of the special committee, headed by Supreme Court Justice Haim Cohn, which last week completed a probe into the Lavon affair. Mr. Ben-Gurion has given the Cabinet only the opinions of Attorney General Gideon Hausner in regard to that report.
Members of the Cabinet reportedly feel, that while no evidence of forgery has been presented in regard to the Lavon events, the probe should be continued, since several witnesses, now abroad, have not yet been interrogated. Mr. Ben-Gurion insists, however, that such continuance of the probe should be undertaken exclusively by a new judicial commission, instead of by the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee of the Parliament.
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