Strategic Assessment

The Israeli parliamentary elections of June 23, 1992 were held amid a crisis in American-Israeli relations. President George Bush's decision of February 1992 to link Israel's request for $10 billion in loan guarantees for immigrant resettlement to a freeze of construction in the West Bank became a major issue in the Israeli elections campaign. Bush's refusal to provide the funding helped defeat the Likud party and bring to power a Labor government headed by Yitzhak Rabin.