Twelfth government of Israel

The twelfth government of Israel was formed by Levi Eshkol on 22 December 1964, towards the end of the fifth Knesset.

Second Eshkol Cabinet
12th Cabinet of Israel
Date formed	22 December 1964 (1964-12-22)
Date dissolved	12 January 1966 (1966-01-12)
People and organisations
Head of state	Zalman Shazar
Head of government	Levi Eshkol
Member parties	Mapai National Religious Party Ahdut HaAvoda Poalei Agudat Yisrael Cooperation and Brotherhood Progress and Development
Status in legislature	Coalition
Opposition leader	Menachem Begin
History
Legislature term(s)	5th
Predecessor	11th Cabinet of Israel
Successor	13th Cabinet of Israel

Eshkol kept the same coalition partners as previously, i.e. Mapai, the National Religious Party, Ahdut HaAvoda, Poalei Agudat Yisrael, Cooperation and Brotherhood and Progress and Development. The only change to the cabinet was Akiva Govrin becoming the country's first Minister of Tourism, having been a Minister without Portfolio in the previous government.

Yosef Almogi and Shimon Peres resigned from the cabinet in May 1965 due to their opposition of the alliance between Mapai and Ahdut HaAvoda. Both joined Ben-Gurion's new party, Rafi in July.

The government served until 12 January 1966, when the thirteenth government took power following the November 1965 elections.

Israeli government formation, 1964

22 December 1964

Nominee Levi Eshkol Menachem Begin Party Mapai Herut Electoral vote 68 52 Percentage 56.7% 43.3%

Prime Minister before election Levi Eshkol Mapai Elected Prime Minister Levi Eshkol Mapai

Cabinet members

Position	Person	Party
Prime Minister	Levi Eshkol	Mapai
Deputy Prime Minister	Abba Eban	Mapai
Minister of Agriculture	Haim Gvati	Not an MK 1
Minister of Defense	Levi Eshkol	Mapai
Minister of Development	Yosef Almogi (until 25 May 1965)	Mapai
	Haim Yosef Zadok (from 31 May 1965)	Mapai
Minister of Education and Culture	Zalman Aran	Mapai
Minister of Finance	Pinchas Sapir	Mapai
Minister of Foreign Affairs	Golda Meir	Mapai
Minister of Health	Haim-Moshe Shapira	National Religious Party
Minister of Housing	Yosef Almogi (until 23 May 1965)	Mapai
	Levi Eshkol (from 31 May 1965)	Mapai
Minister of Internal Affairs	Haim-Moshe Shapira	National Religious Party
Minister of Justice	Dov Yosef	Not an MK 2
Minister of Labour	Yigal Allon	Mapai
Minister of Police	Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit	Mapai
Minister of Postal Services	Eliyahu Sasson	Not an MK 3
Minister of Religions	Zerach Warhaftig	National Religious Party
Minister of Tourism	Akiva Govrin	Mapai
Minister of Trade and Industry	Pinchas Sapir (until 25 May 1965)	Mapai
	Haim Yosef Zadok (from 25 May 1965)	Mapai
Minister of Transportation	Yisrael Bar-Yehuda (until 4 May 1965) 4	Ahdut HaAvoda
	Moshe Carmel (from 30 May 1965)	Ahdut HaAvoda
Minister of Welfare	Yosef Burg	National Religious Party
Deputy Minister of Defense	Shimon Peres (until 25 May 1965)	Mapai
Deputy Minister of Education and Culture	Kalman Kahana (until 22 November 1965)	Poalei Agudat Yisrael
	Aharon Yadlin	Mapai
Deputy Minister of Health	Yitzhak Rafael (until 22 March 1965)	National Religious Party
	Shlomo-Yisrael Ben-Meir (from 24 March 1965)	National Religious Party
Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs	Shlomo-Yisrael Ben-Meir	National Religious Party

¹ Although Gvati was not an MK at the time, he later entered the Knesset as a member of the Labour Alignment, an alliance of Mapai and Ahdut HaAvoda.

² Although Yosef was not an MK at the time, he was a member of Mapai.

³ Although Sasson was not an MK at the time, he was elected to the next Knesset as a member of the Labour Alignment, an alliance of Mapai and Ahdut HaAvoda.

⁴ Died in office.

External links

• The twelfth government of Israel Knesset website