The Knesset, after a heated four-and-a-half hour debate today, approved the appointment of Moshe Nissim as Justice Minister by a vote of 56-39. Nissim, the son of a former Chief Rabbi, is a member of the Liberal Party wing of Likud and has been Minister-Without-Portfolio up to now. Nissim replaced Shmuel Tamir of the Democratic Movement who resigned two weeks ago.
The debate provided a preview of next year’s election campaign between Premier Menachem Begin and Labor Party leader Shimon Peres. The opposition leader charged that Nissim’s appointment. was an attempt to disguise the cracks in the government coalition.
Peres charged that Begin cannot manage the Defense Ministry which he has headed since Ezer Weizman resigned from the Cabinet last spring and that the Premier has not been able to convince his coalition partner to approve the appointment of Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir as Defense Minister.
Replying to Peres’ attack, Begin noted that the Labor Party leader had many quotations on how Begin was handling the Defense Ministry. “But why didn’t he quote from (former Premier) Yitzhak Rabin’s book about his own (Peres) tenure at the Defense Ministry?” Begin retorted. He noted that Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon has apologized for remarks he made last weekend about Begin. But Robin would not take back one word, “not a word,” he has said about Peres, the Premier added. Sharon, who was the only minister to vote against Nissim’s appointment at the Cabinet session Sunday, was absent from today’s Knesset session.
Begin added that Peres has been predicting for months that the government would fall. He pointed out that Peres has noted the government’s low standing in the polls and added, “but Peres is the one who says now that the polls are not so important because in most of them he stands far behind Yitzhak Rabin.”
The rivalry within the Labor Party between Peres and Rabin is believed by many to be the reason why the opposition did not attempt to present any no-confidence motion during today’s special session of the Knesset. There had been in dictations earlier this week that the Labor opposition would try to make a move to topple the government at today’s session.
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