Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir’s IL 11.3 billion supplementary budget squeezed through the Knesset by a narrow margin of 7 votes last night in what observers termed a moral defeat for the Labor Alignment that boded ill for its efforts to put together a viable coalition government. Two Labor MKs–Yitzhak Ben Aharon and Arye Eliav–ignored party discipline and voted against the measure, lining up with Likud, Rakah and Moked factions. Seven other MKs of the Civil Rights List and Aguda bloc–factions Labor hopes will join a coalition–abstained.
It was the first time that Labor MKs voted against the government on a matter of such importance as a state budget and the Labor Alignment Knesset faction plans an inquiry later this week. Labor Party Secretary General Aharon Yadlin said on a radio interview today that the defection was an extraordinarily unfriendly act aimed at Sapir. The negative votes plus the abstentions made it clear that there was no majority in the Knesset for the budget Sapir said was needed to defray the costs of the Yom Kippur War.
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