The eighth Knesset will open on Jan. 21 with Golda Meir, as the oldest member administering the oath of loyalty to her 119 colleagues. President Ephraim Katzir will open the session after which the oldest member takes the chair until a Speaker is elected during the session. Political circles have cast some doubt on whether Labor’s Yemenite Knesset member and former Minister Yisrael Yeshayahu–the Speaker for the latter part of the seventh Knesset–will be re-elected Speaker for the eighth. He performed poorly as Speaker and even his party colleagues would be hard put to defend his candidacy. He often lost control of rowdy Knesseters and screamed and banged his gavel to no effect whatever.
Some observers detect the beginnings of a movement among all the non-Labor parties to support a Speaker from outside Labor’s ranks. The name of Independent Liberal Gideon Hausner has been mentioned but the religious parties would probably balk at him.
The new Cabinet will probably only take shape after 2-3 weeks of tough negotiations. The first feelers have already gone out from Labor to the National Religious Party, the ILP and the Agudist bloc which is believed keen this time to join the government. No hard bargaining is expected before the first soldiers’ votes are known since some pundits feel these might diverge significantly from the civilian results. The official election results must be published before Jan. 14, but the central elections committee hopes to have them out next week.
NEGOTIATIONS TOWARDS COALITION
Meanwhile, the Labor Party and its prospective coalition partners began initial moves today towards negotiations. None of them was adopting any definitive positions until the soldiers’ vote results becomes known, probably tomorrow. All eyes are turning to the NRP which the elections placed in the enviable position of holding the balance. This party’s leaders made early statements stressing their electoral promises to oppose any policy aimed at returning any of the west bank– and to seek the formation of a national unity Cabinet embracing Likud, too.
But hardened observers believe the chances are that ultimately NRP will find a way to square with their conscience, their electoral promises and their hard-liners, and join with Labor in the renewed traditional coalition; Of course the NRP would demand a price–and a very high price–in the field of religious affairs, and this in turn would pose problems for the ILP joining the coalition.
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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.
