The Labor Party and the Likud each added a minister to the unity coalition government Sunday by mutual agreement. They are familiar faces.
Moshe Arens, a former defense minister and close associate of Premier Yitzhak Shamir in Likud’s Herut wing, returned to the Cabinet as minister without portfolio, the rank he held when he quit the government seven months ago because of its decision to scrap the Lavi fighter plane project.
Former Health Minister Mordechai Gur, a Laborite, also re-entered the Cabinet without portfolio. He had resigned in October 1986, refusing to serve under Shamir, who took over as prime minister at that time under the Labor-Likud rotation of power agreement.
Neither man will serve in the 10-member Inner Cabinet, Israel’s top policy-making body, consisting of five Labor and five Likud ministers.
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