Parliament OKs Israel Vote June 23
Parliament voted Tuesday to hold national elections on June 23, confirming the date tentatively agreed upon last week by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s Likud Party and the left-leaning Labor Party.
Only 22 members of the 120-seat Parliament voted on the date because of heavy snow and rain that made it difficult for members of Parliament to attend. The vote was unanimous.
Shamir lost his parliamentary majority last month and now controls only 59 seats after two hard-line factions left the government to protest U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace talks.
In the last national elections, held in 1988, Likud edged out Labor but failed to win a majority. Likud formed a coalition government with smaller nationalist and right-wing parties.
A major issue is the government policy of building Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
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