Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 12, 1990 TAG: 9006120114
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: JERUSALEM LENGTH: Medium
Shamir formally presented the 19-member Cabinet in a speech in which he pledged to seek peace but promised expanded Jewish settlements that will likely raise tensions with Washington and the Arabs.
The vote came after a six-hour debate. Liberal lawmakers charged that Shamir's Likud Bloc used bribery to forge the coalition of nine small far-right and religious parties, and the rival Labor Party said the new government cannot bring peace.
Shamir replied that the criticisms were "pitiful," and called on Israelis to take up the task of absorbing the thousands of Soviet Jewish immigrants coming to Israel.
"This is the mission and around this mission I will compose today a national unity government," he said just before the vote was taken.
The vote was 62 for the government, 57 against and one abstention.
It installed Israel's 24th government since the state's founding in 1948 and gave the 74-year-old Shamir the prime minister's job for the fourth time.
Until Monday, Likud had to accept power sharing with the left-of-center Labor Party since 1984.
The angry political bickering that accompanied the new government's birth raised questions about whether the coalition of diverse factions could survive until the next scheduled election in 1992.
Shamir and his Likud allies spent the day warding off threats of defection, and it was uncertain if the Knesset, or parliament, would back the new government until the vote was cast.
The ultra-Orthodox Shas Party threatened to pull out over a police investigation of alleged fraud by one of its leaders, and four parliament members also warned they would abstain or vote now because they did not get ministerial positions.
David Levy, a leading Likud figure and the foreign minister, walked out of a meeting with Shamir because he was only one of two deputy premiers and not Shamir's undisputed successor.
But in the end, all the defection threats proved empty as Shamir got the 62 votes he forecast when he announced the government last Friday.
Shamir pledged in his address to the Knesset that he would continue to seek dialogue with Palestinians and a deeper involvement of Egypt in peace efforts.
by CNB