DBWI: Ex-President Novak (R-IL) has died

He was 78. President Rodham has just issued a message of condolence to his family. We all vividly remember his Arabist stance in the Lebanon War, otherwise known as "Israel's Vietnam". During the 1980 campaign, he refused to ratify the Quintuplet Agreement between Israel, the Arab League, USSR, UK and US negotiated by outgoing President Robert Kennedy, which was only completed in 1990 under President Bush. Novak aroused international condemnation in 1988 when his refusal to continue loan guarantees caused a five-year economic downturn in Israel, resulting in the permanent extinction of the Likud Party, replaced by the Liberal Democratic Party under Ariel Sharon, who governed between 1995-2006.
 
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