Begin cancels plan for early Israeli elections

Prime Minister Menachem Begin dropped plans to hold early elections even as he rides a crest of public support over the invasion of Lebanon and his hard-line approach to President Reagan's Mideast peace initiative.

The cancellation of plans to hold the balloting early was made because of fears among his junior coalition partners that Begin would be able to gain a majority in the Knesset (parliament) without their support and rule with the first real majority since Israel was founded in 1948. Every government, including Begin's Likud bloc, has been a coalition.