Israeli Left Blocks Coalition

Leaders of the left-leaning Labor Party today voted to turn down a bid to enter into talks with the rival Likud Party on forming a coalition government.

The 61-57 vote by the party’s executive bureau came after the party’s leader, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, argued in favor of entering into negotiations with the right-wing Likud, headed by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. There was one abstention. An offer by Likud for a joint government came after Shamir’s talks with ultra-Orthodox parties bogged down in the small parties’ demands for Cabinet posts and their call for controversial religious legislation.