Editing Shimon Peres (section)

==Unofficial acting premiership (1977)==
On 7 April 1977, Prime Minister Rabin announced that, in the wake of a foreign currency scandal involving his wife, he would be stepping down prior to the 1977 Knesset election.<ref>"Israel's Rabin Quits in Financial Scandal— Prime Minister Resigning to Share Trial With Wife Over Illegal Bank Account", by Dial Torgerson, ''Los Angeles Times'', 8 April 1977, p.I-1</ref> Peres made himself a candidate to replace him as the new Labor Party leader. Initially, Foreign Minister [[Yigal Allon]] also made himself a candidate. However, Allon and Peres reached an agreement that Peres would appoint Allon to any ministerial position that Allon preferred in exchange from his withdrawal of his candidacy. Following Allon's withdrawal, the Labor Party leadership announced on 10 April 1977 that he had chosen to endorse Peres as the party's new leader. [[April 1977 Israeli Labor Party leadership election|On 11 April 1977]], the 815-member Central Committee of the party elected Peres by [[acclamation]] as the party's new leader.<ref name="Kenig"/><ref>{{cite web |title=Defense Chief Replaces Rabin on Israeli Ballot |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/620858128 |website=Newspapers.com |publisher=The Sacramento Bee |access-date=25 January 2022 |language=en |url-access=subscription |date=10 April 1977 |archive-date=25 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125193607/http://www.newspapers.com/image/620858128/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="stepsinto"/>

Rabin ended his active service as prime minister on 22 April 1977, and Peres became Israel's unofficial acting prime minister. The reason why Peres was not officially the holder of this office was that Rabin could not, under Israeli law, resign from his position as prime minister because the government was, at the time, a [[caretaker government]].<ref name = CV /><ref>{{cite web |last1=Farrell |first1=William E. |title=Rabin Ends Service as Premier;Peres Is Sitting In |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/04/23/archives/rabin-ends-service-as-premier-peres-is-sitting-in.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=26 May 2022 |date=23 April 1977 |archive-date=26 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220526062856/https://www.nytimes.com/1977/04/23/archives/rabin-ends-service-as-premier-peres-is-sitting-in.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Shimon Peres – Ninth President of Israel |url=https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/shimon-peres-ninth-president-of-israel-580089 |website=JPost.com |publisher=The Jerusalem Post |access-date=10 February 2022 |date=8 January 2019 |archive-date=10 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220210053541/https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/shimon-peres-ninth-president-of-israel-580089 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Howarda">{{cite book |last1=Howard |first1=Adam M. |title=Foreign Relations of the United States |year=1992 |publisher=Government Printing Office |isbn=978-0-16-092101-8 |page=XXV |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UFROu4fOt-sC |access-date=10 February 2022 |language=en |archive-date=13 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231013172454/https://books.google.com/books?id=UFROu4fOt-sC |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Greenway |first1=H. D. S. |title=Peace Efforts Unaffected by Rabin's Woes |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/04/14/peace-efforts-unaffected-by-rabins-woes/952a9c95-fac6-4765-9392-560eeefe2c7f/ |newspaper=Washington Post |access-date=10 February 2022 |date=14 April 1977}}</ref>

In his first election as party leader, Peres led Labor Party and the Alignment coalition to its first ever electoral defeat, and the result afforded the first-place Likud party (led by [[Menachem Begin]]) the ability to form a coalition that excluded the left. When the new Likud-led government was formed on 20 June 1977<ref>{{cite web |title=Begin Takes Israeli Post |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/39041837 |website=Newspapers.com |publisher=The Times (San Mateo, California) |agency=The Associated Press |access-date=26 May 2022 |language=en |url-access=subscription |date=21 June 1977 |archive-date=26 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220526062112/http://www.newspapers.com/image/39041837/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Peres' time as the unofficial acting prime minister ended.