Representatives of two of Israel’s opposition parties, the Liberals and Herut, met here today to open negotiations for a possible “united front” list of candidates to be slated by the parties for the next national elections to the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, scheduled to be held in November. Leaders of both parties conferred here a few days earlier and decided to start “practical discussions” for a Joint elections list.
The central committee of the Liberal Party, approved last week by a 60 to 40 vote, the proposal to appoint a special committee to negotiate the formation of an election bloc with Herut which had already announced its readiness to negotiate. A proposal by former Justice Minister Pinhas Rosen to postpone discussion of the alignment until after the Knesset elections later this year was defeated.
After the vote on the issue, Knesset Member Moshe Kol announced that the opponents of the alignment decision would boycott all party activities unless the decision was reversed. He said the decision meant a lack of confidence in those who had brought about the union between the General Zionists and the Progressives, since it is the latter group that is generally opposing alignment with Herut.
Josep Saphir, of the General Zionist wing of the Liberal Party, appealed to the opponents of the decision to await the results of the negotiations with Perut before taking any steps.
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