Leaders of the Mapai Party today indicated that if the General Zionists continue to put obstacles in the path of the formation of a new Cabinet by Acting Premier Moshe Sharett, the Mapai will approach the smaller parties to form a coalition government without the General Zionists.
Should the latter move not prove successful, the Mapai will call for general elections, the leaders of the party declared. They expressed the hope that the situation would not come to that point and that the parties concerned would not force the country into new parliamentary elections at the present time. It is generally believed that an understanding will be reached by the middle of this week.
Meanwhile, the smaller parties have indicated a willingness to enter a coalition with the Mapai alone, but at a price. The Progressives and the Labor Mizrachi groups demand scrapping of the proposed election law which would restrict Parliamentary representation to parties which receive at least 10 percent of the total vote in a national election. The Mizrachi and the Labor Mizrachi would demand prohibition of the sale of pork in Israel, as one of the conditions for entering a coalition with the Mapai but without the General Zionists.
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