Former Transport Minister Ezer Weizman was unanimously elected to the number two post in the Herut Party here last night. He will be chairman of the party’s executive, the first senior Herut official who did not come up through the ranks of the militant nationalist movement founded by the late Vladimir Jabotinsky, Gen. Weizman, a former commander of the Israel Air Force, was nominated for the post by Herut leader Menachem Beigin. His deputy will be Eytan Livni, who has been serving as acting chairman of the Herut executive. Mr. Livni was chief of operations of the Irgun Zvai Leumi, the movement that conducted underground warfare against the British before 1948 under the leadership of Mr. Beigin. Gen. Weizman, a career military officer, had no known political affiliations until he joined the Herut Party last year when Herut was part of Premier Golda Meir’s national coalition government. He was named to the Cabinet by the Herut leadership but served only briefly as Minister of Transport. He quit his post when the Gahal faction (Herut-Liberal) bolted the government last summer in protest against Israel’s acceptance of the American Mideast peace initiative. Gen. Weizman is a nephew of the late Dr. Chaim Weizmann, Israel’s first President, and a brother-in-law of Defense Minister Moshe Dayan.
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