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.
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.