Friday, January 21, 1984

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Likud Defeats Knesset Votes, Adopts Budget

JERUSALEM (JTA) — urgently needed to deal
The Likud coalition de- with galloping inflation, the
feated three Knesset no- widening balance of pay-
confidence motions on ments gap and dangerously
Wednesday after eight- low hard currency reserves.
hours of raucous debate But Defense Minister
over the state of Israel's Moshe Arens adamantly
opposed the cuts in the de-
economy.
The three motions were fense budget proposed by
defeated by identical votes Finance Minister Yigal
of 62-56, with one absten- Cohen-Orgad.
Arens' threat to resign if
tion. The debate and votes
followed Sunday's Cabinet the cuts were adopted was
action approving a $20.1 countered by the same
billion budget for fiscal threat from Cohen-Orgad if
1984, including $600 mil- they were not. At that point,
lion in spending reductions. Shamir intervened and,
The budget cuts included with the help of Deputy
$169 million from the de- Premier David Levy, man-
fense budget, cuts in educa- aged to effect an under-
standing between the
tion and other areas.
ministers.
Agreement was finally
The education and wel-
reached in a marathon fare budgets also posed
Cabinet session which problems. Cohen-Orgad
began Sunday morning told reporters that the re-
and stretched into the maining differences be-
night, with frequent in- tween his proposals and
terruptions for informal those of Education Minister
consultations among the Zevulun Hammer would be
ministers. It was reconciled during the week.
achieved only after Pre-
Negotiations are also
mier Yitzhak Shamir continuing with the Tami
made it clear that unless party which controls the
a budget was adopted he Welfare Ministry. Tami
would resign, thereby has agreed to some cuts
bringing down the gov- but is demanding higher
ernment and forcing new tax exemptions for low
elections which Likud Income families, in-
obviously does not want creased child care
at this time.
allowances and a new
The ministers have been minimum wage law.
arguing over the budget for
According to Cohen-
weeks. All agreed a nine Orgad, the cuts in military
percent across-the-board expenditures will not have
reduction in spending was any serious effects on the

defense
country's
capabilities, a point dis-
puted by Arens, although he
finally acquiesced to the
compromise supported by
Shamir.
The $20.1 billion budget
finally agreed on is only a
shade higher than the $20
billion budget for fiscal
1983. But the cost of virtu-
ally everything has soared.
The inflation rate for 1983
exceeded 190 percent. Last
year's balance of payments
deficit stood at $5.3 billion.
Meanwhile, the strike of
railway workers entered its
second week and the man-
agement of the Negev phos-
phate and potash workers
on the Dead Sea say their
export losses now amount to
$250,000 per day.
The railway workers
voted Sunday to continue
their work stoppage
which has halted all rail
traffic, both passenger
and freight. They are de-
manding a pay increase
of some 30 percent to
make up for erosion of
their incomes, for recog-
nition as "production
workers" who are
entitled to extra tax bene-
fits and payment while
they have been on strike.
The Dead Sea Works usu-
ally move some 8,000 tons of
products a day. The man-

agement has switched to
road transport, but trucks
can only move 40 percent of
the daily output, at three
times the cost of rail trans-
portation.
Meanwhile, 60,000 em-
ployees of local councils
threatened to call a full
strike Thursday if their
wage demands are not met.
Some council employees
were already on strike,
complaining they have not
yet received their December
salaries from the Treasury.
Last Sunday, 3,500
engineers employed by Is-
rael Aircraft Industries

21

LARRY FREEDMAN

stayed off the job for the day
and have threatened to end
all overtime work unless
they receive a new wage
scale.

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Key Committees for Israel
to Change in House, Senate

By MORRIS AMITAY

WASHINGTON — Re-
gardless of the November
election results, several re-
tirements already an-
nounced by House and Se-
nate members will have an
effect on Congressional in-
volvement in the Middle
East issues. Democratic
Senator Paul Tsongas' sur-
prise announcement that he
would not seek re-election
in Massachusetts because of
illness, now brings to four
the number of Senators re-
tiring at year's end — Tower
of Texas, Baker of Tennes-
see and Randolph of West
Virginia. On balance, sup-
port for Israel should be
strengthened as a result of
these retirements.
Tsongas, whose voting re-
cord was excellent, has been
critical at times of Israeli
policy. He was considered a
very strong re-election
prospect this November. A
number of candidates have
been mentioned as potential
successors in this tradi-
tionally Democratic state,
but no clear frontrunner has
yet emerged. More impor-
tantly, Tsongas' retirement
creates an opening on the
key Senate Foreign Rela-
tions Committee next year.
Another surprise retire-
ment was announced by
veteran Representative
Richard Ottinger, a strong
Israel supporter and Jewish
member of Congress. Ot-
tinger becomes the 18th
member of the House to re-
tire, many of whom are

running for the Senate.
Among the Congres-
sional retirees are two
Republican members of
the key House Foreign
Affairs Committee, Larry
Winn of Kansas and Joel
Pritchard of Washington.
While Winn's 1979 meet-
ing with Yasir Arafat
tainted an otherwise
good record of support,
he represented a wel-
come friend. Pritchard,
on the other hand, gained
a measure of notoriety
last year after offering a
$300 million cutting
amendment in grant aid
to Israel during the
mark-up of the foreign
aid bill and never distin-
guished himself as a
friend of Israel.
These retirements along
with the succession of a new
chairman of the House
Foreign Affairs Committee,
Dante Fascell of Florida,
and anticipated Senate
changes as a result of elec-
tions, spell out stronger fu-
ture support for Israel in the
Congress. But the 1984
Presidential election will, of
course, also have a great
deal to say about the course
of U.S.-Israel relations for
the next four years.
While it is considered
axiomatic to many in Wash-
ington that the second term
of any Presidency does not
bode well for Israel, it is
even more axiomatic that
Israel remains America's
only reliable ally in the
Middle
. . East. •

Our dinner was by candlelight.
The dessert was by citylight.

Cup after cup,
The coffee was Brim.`'

Fill your cup to the rim
With the richness of Brim. R

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OENENAL FOODS'

General Foods Corporation 1984

