Yitzhak Rabin journalist Dan Margalit revealed that a joint dollar account in the names of Yitzhak and Leah Rabin, opened in a Washington, D.C., bank during Rabin's term of office as Israel ambassador (1968–73), was still open, in breach of Israeli law. According to Israeli currency regulations at the time, it was illegal for citizens to maintain foreign bank accounts without prior authorization. Rabin resigned on 8 April 1977, following the revelation by "Maariv" journalist S. Isaac Mekel that the Rabins held two accounts in Washington, not one, containing $10,000, and that a Finance Ministry administrative penalty committee fined them IL150,000. Rabin
Gad Yaacobi the Rafi party. When Rafi merged into the Labor Party (which formed part of the alliance known as the Alignment), he was appointed to the party's bureau. In the 1969 election, he was elected to the Knesset, and in 1972 was appointed Deputy Transportation Minister. In 1974 he was appointed Transportation Minister by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, a position he held until the 1977 election. In 1984, in the joint Alignment – Likud government, Yaacobi served as Minister of Economy and Planning until 1987, when he was appointed Minister of Communications – a position he held again in the 23rd