ABSTRACT
Secretary of State George Shultz's idea to convene an international Middle East peace conference produced two conflicting foreign policies in Israel, still governed by a National Unity government at the time. Likud strongly rejected the conference idea, whereas Labor enthusiastically supported it. As a result, the first National Unity government nearly collapsed; it survived only because the Labor Party did not have the votes it needed to form a new government. The internal tension that erupted in Israel over the idea of an international conference turned into a political crisis after rotation occurred in October 1986, when Shimon Peres assumed the vice premiership and the foreign ministry and Yitzhak Shamir became prime minister. The rift over the conference idea broadened in April 1987, when Shamir faulted Peres for accepting the idea of the international conference, describing the conference notion as "suicide, insane and monstrous". He also accused Peres of dictating the idea through "shrewd and clandestine tactics".
