Labor and Likud agreed today to defer once again a Knesset vote on a bill barring meetings between Israelis and members of the PLO. The bill was to have come up for a vote today at a special recess session of the Knesset, convened to legislate on economic matters.
The bill has consistently troubled doveish members of the Labor Party, and the leadership was under pressure to devise a softer version or force the Likud to agree to a deferment.
Premier Shimon Peres himself was involved this morning in an effort to reach agreed wording with the Likud. But the effort ran aground and both major parties apparently preferred stalling rather than face an almost inevitable rebellion by a significant number of Laborites. That would have exacerbated still further the tensions that already exist within the unity coalition.
Geula Cohen of the rightist opposition Tehiya Party was quick to condemn the deferment. She said failure to legislate the bill flew in the face of Israel’s oft-stated contention that it is involved in a mortal struggle with the PLO.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
