Another fruitless attempt was made last night to form a new Cabinet without general elections now tentatively set for August.
At the suggestion of Foreign Minister Golda Meir, of Mapai, the Transport Minister Yitzhak Ben Aharon of Achdut Avodah met with Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. At the meeting, the question of forming a new narrow coalition “of Mapai and the two left-wing parties–Achdut Avodah and Mapam–was again raised.
The meeting broke up when Mr. Ben-Gurion reiterated he would not serve in a coalition with the two parties which had been most hostile in rejecting him as a candidate to succeed himself as Prime Minister. Mr. Ben-Gurion said he would not serve even as Defense Minister in a coalition with the two left-wing parties.
He added that as long as Mapam and Achdut Avodah continued their refusal to retract their charges against him–which developed from his successful fight to force Pinhas Lavon out of his post as Histadrut secretary-general–the Eshkol-headed Cabinet offer was open only to the Progressive party and the National Religious party. The latter parties rejected that proposal two weeks ago, making elections inevitable. Bills for new elections have received their first reading in the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament.
Meanwhile, the Israel Government Statistics Bureau prepared 2,200,000 registry cards today in preparation for Israel’s second official census. The population count, which begins May 22, the day after Shavuot, will include infants born up to May 1.
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