Shamir Likud second term — post-stabilisation liberalisation, Soviet aliyah absorption

Doctrine — stated goals and content

Economic school: post-stabilisation structural liberalisation under Likud-right doctrine, driven by the need to absorb ~400,000 Soviet-Jewish olim (mass aliyah from 1989-1991) who raised the population ~8% in two years. Left-right axis: right-of-centre — capital-market liberalisation, bank-share unwinding begun, beginning of Bank of Israel's independence (Frenkel governorship 1991), privatisation pipeline expanded, and US loan-guarantees-for-settlement-freeze standoff with the G.H.W. Bush administration (1991-92). Dated policies: Soviet-Jewish absorption package (direct "absorption basket" cash grants from 1990, mortgage subsidies); price-stability anchor maintained post-1985 plan; 1991 Bank of Israel independence strengthening ahead of formal 2010 law; Law of Return amendments in practice. Popularity: November 1988 Knesset — Likud 40, Labour 39 — National Unity until Shamir's 1990 coalition collapse ("stinking trick" March 1990), then narrow right coalition; June 1992 Knesset election lost to Rabin's Labour (Labour 44, Likud 32). Coherence: moderate — successfully absorbed mass immigration at roughly 10% unemployment peak without inflation restart, but settlement-policy friction with the US cost $10bn in delayed loan guarantees.