Leaders of the Likud-led coalition government decided at a meeting today to postpone a decision on Premier Menachem Begin’s choice of a little known nuclear physicist, Prof. Yitzhak Shaveh, to be Israel’s next President. The leadership indicated that while Begin’s recommendation should be treated with respect, they must find out more about Shaveh who is virtually unknown outside of scientific circles.
He was picked by Begin to succeed President Ephraim Katzir whose four-year term expires in May. The Knesset will vote for a new President an April 5. Some members of Likud’s Liberal Party wing favor their colleague Elimelech Rimalt for the office. The Labor Alignment tends to support Laborite Yitzhak Navon who, like Shaveh, is of Sephardic origin. Begin himself reportedly hardly knew Shaveh until he was recommended by Herut Minister-Without-Portfolio Haim Landau. Begin had his first meeting with Shaveh last Monday and told coalition leaders that he had been favorably impressed.
According to Haaretz, Shaveh belonged to an extreme right-wing group in 1975 that campaigned against the second Sinai interim agreement with Egypt. The group published large advertisements in which Shaveh bitterly denounced the Labor government. The professor appears to have moderated his views somewhat since then, Haaretz said.
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