Nineteenth Government of Israel

The June 30, 1981 election to the Tenth Knesset produced a close result that contradicted pre-election polls predicting an Alignment victory.[7] Likud won 48 seats and the Alignment 47 — a margin that Ynet characterized as "a tie with winners."[3] The surprise outcome was attributed in part to Finance Minister Yoram Aridor's economic stimulus measures and to the international attention generated by Israel's successful strike on Iraq's nuclear reactor earlier that month.[7]

Ynet describes Begin as forming an initial 61-seat coalition with the National Religious Party (Mafdal), Agudat Israel, and Tami, the party led by Aharon Abuhatzeira.[3] Agudat Israel participated in the coalition but held no ministerial post.[7] About a month after the Lebanon War began in June 1982, Tehiya and Telem joined the coalition, expanding it to 65 seats, according to Calcalist.[4] The government began on August 5, 1981.[1]

The Jewish Virtual Library lists the Nineteenth Government as having 18 ministers — a count that includes a deputy prime minister but not other deputy ministers, and that could change during the government's term.[8] Simha Ehrlich and David Levy served as deputy prime ministers, Yitzhak Shamir as foreign minister, and Ariel Sharon as defense minister.[7] Sharon departed the defense portfolio in February 1983 following the findings of the commission that investigated the Sabra and Shatila massacre and was replaced by Moshe Arens.[7]

Other cabinet posts included Zevulun Hammer at education, Yoram Aridor at finance, Joseph Burg at interior and religious affairs, Moshe Nissim at justice, and Gideon Pat at industry and trade.[7] Aharon Abu-Hatzeira held the labor and welfare portfolio initially but was later replaced by Aharon Uzan.[7] Portfolio changes continued during the government's lifespan: Yitzhak Modai took over energy and infrastructures in October 1982, and Begin himself assumed the agriculture portfolio in June 1983.[7]

Begin's second government began with 18 ministers and 12 deputy ministers.[9] Deputy ministers included Haim Kaufman (finance), Mordechai Tzipori (defense), Moshe Katsav (housing and construction), Haim Druckman (religious affairs), Yehuda Ben-Meir (foreign affairs), Miriam Ta'asa-Glazer (education), Pesah Grupper and Michael Dekel (agriculture), Ben-Zion Rubin (labor and welfare), Aharon Uzan (absorption), David Shifman (transport), and Dov Shilansky in the Prime Minister's Office.[9]

The government combined a formal commitment to the peace treaty with Egypt with active settlement policy in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip.[7] In return for support from religious coalition partners, the government made a series of concessions to religious practice and institutions: El Al flights were suspended on the Sabbath, financial support for yeshivot and religious institutions was increased, and adjustments were made concerning Sabbath observance, religious holidays, and kashrut standards.[7] An amendment to legislation touching on the "Who is a Jew" question was also enacted during this period.[7]

A retrospective account describes the cabinet's dominant axis as Begin, Ariel Sharon, and Yitzhak Shamir — a grouping the author characterizes as more hawkish than the earlier Begin–Dayan–Weizman team associated with the Camp David framework.[10] Within that framework, the government pursued aggressive settlement activity in Judea and Samaria, with Sharon formulating a strategy centered on Jewish control of major roads in the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — and on the construction of new roads, settlements, urban centers, and significant economic investment.[10]

Two of the government's earliest major actions grew directly from decisions made before or alongside the 1981 election. The Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty required Israel's final evacuation of Sinai by April 25, 1982.[11] Opposition from settlers of the Rafiah Salient and Gush Emunim was fierce: hundreds, perhaps as many as a thousand people, moved to Yamit and nearby settlements along with their families, rabbis, and yeshivot in an effort to frustrate the withdrawal.[10] A cautious military operation ultimately prevented large-scale violence, and the evacuation was completed.[10] The Sinai withdrawal proved a severe shock to Gush Emunim; groups opposed to the Camp David Accords subsequently formed the Covenant of the Eretz Israel Faithful, which later helped found Tehiya.[10]

In December 1981, the Knesset passed the Golan Heights Law by a vote of 63–21, extending Israeli law to the Golan.[11] An American Jewish Archives memorandum notes that the Knesset had earlier approved the Begin government's guidelines on August 5, 1981, authorizing action regarding the Golan Heights when the government considered the moment appropriate.[11] Sources use different language to describe this step — Calcalist calls it annexation, while Ynet describes a declaration of Israeli sovereignty — reflecting the contested political status of the Golan Heights.[5][4]

A US-negotiated ceasefire between Israel and the PLO reached in July 1981 was subsequently violated.[12] On June 3, 1982, a gunman belonging to Ahmed Jibril's movement shot and critically wounded Israel's ambassador to Britain, Shlomo Argov.[12] Begin convened a special government session, and a majority cabinet vote authorized strikes on targets in Beirut and southern Lebanon; the PLO responded with artillery fire against Israeli northern towns, particularly Kiryat Shmona.[12]

The Israel Defense Forces entered Lebanon on June 6, 1982, with the government announcing that its objective was to push armed groups northward and remove northern Israeli communities from the range of their weapons.[13] The operation was initially framed as limited in both duration — 48 hours — and depth, with troops not to advance more than roughly 40 kilometers into Lebanon.[13] Israeli forces nonetheless advanced as far as Beirut, and some cabinet ministers later accused Defense Minister Ariel Sharon of concealing the army's actual plans from them.[13]

During July and into mid-August 1982, the IDF besieged Beirut. Following intense fighting and bombardment on August 11–12, the PLO agreed to withdraw, and evacuation began on August 25 under the supervision of a multinational force.[13] After the assassination of Lebanese president-elect Bashir Gemayel on September 14, Israeli forces entered western Beirut. Phalangist forces then entered the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps and killed Palestinian civilians; estimates of the death toll vary — Ynet reports approximately 800 victims, while the Times of Israel puts the figure at up to 3,500, mainly Palestinians and Lebanese Shiite Muslims.[13][14]

The massacre generated enormous public pressure on Begin to establish an official inquiry. The government appointed a commission chaired by Supreme Court President Yitzhak Kahan, with Judge Aharon Barak and General Yona Efrat as members.[13][14] The Kahan Commission concluded that the decision to allow the Phalangists into the camps had been taken without adequate consideration of foreseeable danger, and recommended that Sharon be dismissed as defense minister.[7][14] Sharon resigned from the defense portfolio and was succeeded by Moshe Arens in February 1983.[7] A large public demonstration in Tel Aviv had called for Sharon's resignation before his departure.[7]

Begin's popularity declined steadily as the war extended well beyond its initially promised scope, Israeli troop casualties mounted, and the economic situation deteriorated.[14] Mass protests took place, including a daily count of troop deaths held outside the Prime Minister's Residence.[14] The war, which the Jewish Review of Books argues was the first to truly divide Israeli society, continued past Begin's own resignation.[15]

Just weeks before the June 1981 election, Begin ordered the Israeli Air Force to destroy Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor. The reactor was struck on June 7, 1981, shortly before it was scheduled to become operational.[5][16] Senior military and intelligence officials had advised against the strike, arguing that the risks outweighed the chances of success, but Begin ordered it to proceed out of determination to prevent Israel's enemies from obtaining weapons of mass destruction.[16] The policy that emerged from this decision became known as the Begin Doctrine, subsequently invoked in discussions of nuclear threats elsewhere in the region.[15]

The government's tenure coincided with a period of severe economic turbulence. Ynet's historical overview says inflation reached 400 percent in 1983, while the Library of Congress records the crisis continuing after the government left office and peaking at 445 percent in fiscal year 1984.[5][6] The sources therefore differ on the timing and level of the peak, but both document an inflationary surge that outlasted the Nineteenth Government.

The crisis reflected persistent government overspending and spiraling prices.[6] The Nineteenth Government did not arrest inflation before leaving office. The subsequent unity government adopted a comprehensive stabilization program in July 1985 that combined devaluation, price and wage restrictions, budget and subsidy cuts, tax increases, and tight monetary policy, ultimately bringing inflation under control.[6]

Begin announced his resignation in late August 1983, though Ynet accounts differ on the precise date: its history of the Lebanon War gives August 23, while a later retrospective dates the declaration to August 28.[12][2] At the weekly cabinet meeting, Begin told his ministers, "I can no longer."[17] He gave no full public explanation for his decision and subsequently withdrew almost entirely from public life, remaining largely silent until his death nearly nine years later — a striking withdrawal for a gifted public speaker.[15][17]

Multiple factors are identified in the sources as bearing on Begin's decision: the Lebanon War's heavy human and political costs, including the deaths of hundreds of IDF soldiers; the 1982 death of his wife, Aliza; the economic difficulties of the period; and Begin's personal health.[7][14] Yitzhak Shamir was sworn in as prime minister on October 10, 1983, ending the Nineteenth Government and beginning the Twentieth.[2]

The Twentieth Government led by Shamir served only until the July 1984 election, which produced a result that rendered conventional coalition-building impossible. The Alignment (Labor) won 44 seats and Likud 41; neither party could assemble a coalition larger than 54 seats with smaller parties.[18] Following several weeks of negotiations, Labor and Likud agreed to form a broadly based national unity government — described by the Library of Congress as unprecedented in Israel's post-independence history because neither major party could form a coalition without the other's equal participation.[6]

The power-sharing arrangement, which the Library of Congress characterized as a "joint executive committee of Labor and Likud," called for Labor leader Shimon Peres and Likud leader Yitzhak Shamir to divide the administration and switch portfolios midway through.[6] Peres became prime minister and Shamir foreign minister when the government took office in September 1984 with the support of 97 Knesset members; a ten-member inner cabinet was divided equally between the two parties, intended to let either block the other's initiatives.[18] They switched positions in October 1986, with Shamir becoming prime minister and Peres foreign minister.[19]

The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs describes this unity arrangement as an "odd couple": the partners differed fundamentally in outlook and quarreled frequently, but neither had another workable political arrangement available.[20] The government's foreign-policy agenda was marked by persistent deadlock over contested issues including the territories, territorial compromise, possible negotiations with the PLO, and Israeli participation in U.S.-sponsored peace initiatives.[6]

Despite those divisions, the unity government completed what the Washington Institute describes as a full term — approximately 51 months in office.[18] Among its most significant acts was an Economic Stabilization Program adopted in July 1985 to address the hyperinflation inherited from the preceding period. The program included an 18.8 percent devaluation followed by a fixed exchange rate, price controls, subsidy and budget cuts, tax increases, wage restrictions, and tight monetary policy.[6] Inflation, which the Library of Congress records had peaked at 445 percent in fiscal year 1984, fell to 20 percent by the end of 1986; the government eliminated its budget deficit in fiscal year 1985 and private savings rose to 21 percent of GNP by 1986.[6] The government's measures initially caused a reported 20–30 percent erosion in real wages, prompting pressure from Histadrut that led to wage adjustments.[6]

On January 14, 1985, the cabinet voted 16–6 for withdrawal from most of Lebanon within a few months, over the opposition of Shamir, who argued the IDF should not withdraw without security guarantees and publicly called the proposed withdrawal "surrender."[21] Peres expressed public hope that "this would be the IDF's final winter in Lebanon, and I hope for peace in the Galilee."[21] The withdrawal left Israeli troops in a narrow security zone in southern Lebanon, patrolled with the South Lebanon Army, that was intended to protect northern Israel while avoiding the costs of a larger deployment.[6]

The Palestinian uprising — the intifadah — began in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip in December 1987, while the unity government was still in office, adding further pressure to an already burdened administration.[6] The November 1988 election again produced no clear majority for either major party, and a second Labor-Likud unity government followed, this time with Labor as the junior partner and Shamir as prime minister.[19]

Several aspects of the Nineteenth Government remain subjects of historical and political debate. The authorization, aims, and expansion of the Lebanon operation are contested: while the government announced limited objectives, Israeli forces advanced far beyond the stated parameters, and ministers later disputed whether Sharon had been candid with the cabinet about the army's true plans.[13] The characterization of the conflict as a "war of choice" appears in the cited Ynet account and is itself a contested judgment.[13]

The Sabra and Shatila death toll is disputed: estimates in the sources consulted range from approximately 800 to as many as 3,500 victims.[13][14] The inquiry distinguished between the direct responsibility of Phalangist forces and Sharon's failure to take steps to prevent the massacre, exonerating the army from direct responsibility while recommending Sharon's removal from the defense portfolio.[7][13]

Ynet accounts also differ on the precise timing of Begin's resignation announcement, giving August 23 and August 28, 1983.[12][2] Shamir's swearing-in on October 10, 1983, clarifies the distinction between Begin's announcement and the government's formal conclusion.[2] One English-language Ynet opinion column gives Likud's 1981 seat total as 47, differing from the 48 reported by multiple other sources.[22]

Sources also diverge on Telem's initial coalition status. Ynet and Calcalist describe an initial 61-seat coalition of Likud, the National Religious Party, Agudat Israel, and Tami, with Telem joining in 1982.[3][4] Encyclopedia.com, however, states that Telem joined the coalition when the government was formed.[7]