Twenty-Third Government of Israel

The Twenty-Third Government emerged from the Twelfth Knesset election held on November 1, 1988. Likud, led by Yitzhak Shamir, won 40 seats, while the Alignment, led by Shimon Peres, won 39. Ultra-Orthodox parties together won 13 seats, up from six in the previous election, giving the right-wing and ultra-Orthodox bloc 65 seats.[8] Although this bloc was large enough to support a narrower government, Shamir chose to re-form a national unity coalition with the Alignment.[3]

The coalition agreement, dated December 22, 1988, established a National Unity Government headed by Shamir, with Peres serving as vice premier. It provided equal numbers of ministers and ministries for Likud and the Alignment and established a twelve-member Inner Cabinet divided equally between them. The Knesset voted confidence in the government that day by 84 votes to 19, with three abstentions.[1]

A crucial difference from the preceding national unity arrangement was the absence of a rotation agreement. The earlier government had divided the prime ministership between Peres and Shamir, who exchanged positions in October 1986; the government established after the 1988 election left Shamir as prime minister throughout its term.[9][5] Ynet and Globes identify the new administration as the Twenty-Third Government.[5][10] The Jewish Virtual Library cabinet chronology uses the same numbering.[2]

The cabinet's senior structure reflected the parity arrangement at the heart of the coalition agreement. Yitzhak Shamir served as prime minister; David Levy was deputy prime minister and minister of construction and housing; Yitzhak Navon was deputy prime minister and minister of education and culture; and Shimon Peres was vice premier and minister of finance. Yitzhak Rabin remained defense minister, while Moshe Arens was appointed foreign minister.[2]

The ministerial roster also included Ehud Olmert, Rafael Edri, Mordechai Gur, Moshe Shahal, Yitzhak Modai, Moshe Katsav, Ezer Weizman, Ariel Sharon, Yaacov Tzur, Haim Bar Lev, Aryeh Deri, Gideon Patt, Dan Meridor, Gad Yaacobi, Moshe Nissim, Avraham Katz-Oz, Yitzhak Peretz, and Ronni Milo. Their portfolios ranged from energy, economics, and transportation to defense, justice, agriculture, immigrant absorption, and the environment.[2]

The Jewish Virtual Library roster contains 24 ministers. A contemporary Jerusalem Post report described a government of 28 ministers, while the coalition agreement reproduced in the same issue specified that 26 ministers would serve.[2][1] The participating parties were Likud, the Alignment, the National Religious Party, Shas, and Agudat Israel, giving the coalition more than 90 Knesset members.[4] The agreement's division of ministries and its equally divided Inner Cabinet institutionalized cooperation between Likud and the Alignment despite their policy differences.[1]

The coalition agreement's basic guidelines set the government's approach to the central political question of the day: the status of the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — and Gaza. The guidelines opposed negotiations with the PLO, called for autonomy negotiations for Arab residents of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza within the Camp David framework, and stated that existing sovereignty arrangements would remain unchanged unless Likud and the Alignment agreed otherwise. They also called for the establishment of five to eight new settlements annually.[1]

On May 15, 1989, the government announced a peace initiative centered on opening talks with Palestinians from the territories and addressing elections there. A government historical chronology describes it as a four-point initiative.[6][7] The proposal explicitly excluded talks with the PLO, in accordance with the coalition guidelines.[6]

The period also marked the start of mass Jewish immigration from the Soviet Union, followed later by immigration from its former republics.[6][7] The government therefore faced a major immigration wave while the intifada continued to create intense security pressures. One of the gravest terrorist attacks of the Twelfth Knesset's term occurred when a terrorist deliberately rolled bus No. 405 into a ravine on the Tel Aviv–Jerusalem road, killing 14 passengers.[6]

Disagreements over the conduct of negotiations and the kind of agreement Israel should pursue eroded the national unity coalition.[6] Another account identifies the immediate precipitating issue as the government's response to a U.S. peace initiative.[9] Shimon Peres, then finance minister, conducted secret negotiations with ultra-Orthodox parties in an effort to replace Shamir's government with an alternative coalition.[5]

In March 1990, the Alignment submitted a motion of no confidence. Shamir dismissed Peres, the Alignment ministers resigned, and on March 15 the motion passed by 60 votes to 55. It was the first time an Israeli government had been brought down by a no-confidence vote.[5] Five of the six Shas members of the Knesset were absent.[6]

Peres then attempted but failed to form a replacement government. Shamir subsequently formed a narrower Likud-led coalition without the Alignment, designated the Twenty-Fourth Government, which took office on June 11, 1990.[6][2] Peres's failed maneuver acquired a lasting and politically charged name: Yitzhak Rabin called it the "dirty trick."[5]

The government's collapse ended the six-year national unity arrangement that had begun after the 1984 election. The government formed in September 1984 had the support of 97 Knesset members and operated under a rotation agreement that placed Peres and then Shamir in the prime minister's office.[11][9] The Twenty-Third Government was similarly broad, incorporating Likud, the Alignment, the National Religious Party, Shas, and Agudat Israel, but it dispensed with the rotation mechanism.[4]

Its parity structure echoed a constraint already documented in the earlier national unity cabinet: major policy decisions required agreement between Likud and the Alignment.[12] The 1988 coalition agreement preserved that balance through equal ministerial representation and an evenly divided Inner Cabinet.[1] In practice, disagreements over negotiations and the nature of a possible agreement contributed directly to the government's collapse.[6][9]

The March 1990 vote established an important parliamentary precedent as the first successful no-confidence vote against an Israeli government.[6][5] Mass Jewish immigration from the Soviet Union had also begun during the government's tenure, creating an absorption challenge that continued under later governments.[7] The 1989 peace initiative became a focal point of the policy disagreements that broke apart the coalition.[6]

A Ynet retrospective about the 1988 election labels the unity government formed afterward as the Twenty-Second Government.[8] A separate Ynet government chronology identifies it as the Twenty-Third Government, as do the Jewish Virtual Library and Globes.[5][2] The article therefore follows the numbering used by those sources and by the cabinet chronology.[10]

Sources also give different cabinet totals. The Jewish Virtual Library roster contains 24 ministers, while the contemporary Jerusalem Post report counted 28 and the coalition agreement reproduced in the same issue specified 26.[2][1] The sources do not resolve the discrepancy.

Accounts of the government's collapse differ mainly in emphasis. The Knesset-derived history stresses longer-running disagreements over how negotiations should proceed and what agreement Israel should seek, while Encyclopedia.com identifies the dispute over the response to a U.S. peace initiative as the immediate precipitating issue.[6][9]