Twenty-third government of Israel

Third Shamir Cabinet
23rd Cabinet of Israel
Date formed	22 December 1988 (1988-12-22)
Date dissolved	11 June 1990 (1990-06-11)
People and organisations
Head of state	Chaim Herzog
Head of government	Yitzhak Shamir
Member parties	Likud Alignment (until 15 March 1990) Shas National Religious Party Agudat Yisrael Degel HaTorah
Status in legislature	National Unity Government
Opposition leader	Shulamit Aloni
History
Election	1988 Israeli legislative election
Legislature term	12th Knesset
Predecessor	22nd Cabinet of Israel
Successor	24th Cabinet of Israel

The twenty-third government of Israel was formed by Yitzhak Shamir of Likud on 22 December 1988, following the November 1988 elections. The government remained a national unity coalition between Likud and the Alignment, with the National Religious Party, Shas, Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah also being members of the coalition. It was the first government to have a Minister of the Environment.

In 1990, after Shamir refused to accept a peace initiative developed by United States Secretary of State James Baker, the Alignment filed a motion of no-confidence in the government. Shamir fired all the Alignment ministers,^[1] but the vote was passed by 60–55, meaning that President Chaim Herzog had to ask one of the party leaders to form a new government. It was the first, and to date, only time which a government was brought down by a no confidence motion. Herzog initially asked Alignment leader Shimon Peres to form a new government, but after Peres was unable to, turned to Shamir, who successfully formed the twenty-fourth government on 11 June. The incident became known as the dirty trick.

¹ Although Deri was not a Knesset member at the time, he was a member of Shas.

• Tenth Knesset: Government 23 Knesset website