President Ben Zvi issued a formal statement today instructing Prime Minister David Ben Gurion and all members of the present Government to remain in office on a caretaker basis until the November elections produced a new Government with a vote of confidence from the next Knesset, Israel’s Parliament.
The Presidential statement was published after a meeting between the President and Mr. Ben Gurion at the President’s resort. At the 50-minute meeting, Mr Ben Gurion reported, as had been expected, that he had been unable to form a new coalition when the Religious and General Zionist parties declined to promise him passive support for a Cabinet without Mapam and Achdut Avodah, which voted against the Government on the Israel sale of arms to West Germany.
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