Friday, March 30, 1984 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Can Labor regain control? METROPOLITAN DETROIT B'NAI B'RITH MEN'S AND WOMEN'S COUNCILS Continued from Page 1 Hatzeira's native Morocco. Some newspapers claimed that he was acting on in- structions from his patron, Nissim Gaon, a Geneva- based multi-millionaire leader of Sephardic Jewry world-wide. Tami is also said to want to go to the polls while the National Religious Party is in a state of disarray. The focus now is on a date for the new elections and potential candidates for the top spot. Two former defense ministers, the popular Ezer Weizman and the controversial Ariel Sharon, are planning to mount a challenge and former president Yitzhak Navon is considering a similar move. Within Likud, there is a distinct possibili- ty that Deputy Prime Minister David Levy may challenge Sharnir for the top spot on the party list. Likud has sought to delay the elections for as long as possible, hoping the economy would stabilize. Labor favored early elec- tions to capitalize on the growing dissent among the electorate over the two ma- jor issues: the economy and In Cooperation With The JEWISH NATIONAL FUND! INVITE YOU TO ATTEND A CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST HONORING ALEXANDER T. ORNSTEIN, President - Men's Council BOBBIE LEVINE, President - Women's Council Along With The Lodge, Chapter and Unit Presidents on SUN., APRIL 1, 1984 - 10:00 A.M. at LOUIS SEGEL Chairperson Cong. Shaarey Zedek 27375 Bell Road Southfield, Michigan GUEST SPEAKER LT. COL. (res) HAIM SARID SARAH FEUEREISEN MINIMUM - $9.00 Per Person (includes one tree) Chairperson CO-CHAIRMEN OF THE EVENT ARE: CHARLES FINK, TED FRAZIS, LOUIS KAY AND HARRY MICHELSON Kosher wine needn't be sweet just special Ezer Weizman And special means Kedem. From world-renowned vineyards in flance, Italy, California and New York. Rated and recommended by leading wine critics and editors, Kedem wines are superior to the world's great wines for one special reason, they're kosher. "(EDEN" KOSHER PASSOVER WINES K E D EM WIN E CO., NE W YORK, N. Y. 26 troop withdrawal from Lebanon. By mid-week, though, the position of the two major parties seemed to have moved towards con- sensus for early elections. Almost no one wants to be subjected to the tension, the emotional drain and the massive expenditures of public funds generated by a prolonged campaign. "A long campaign will hurt the country because of its impact on economic measures and because of the increased expenditures of the campaign itself," said Knesset member Gad Yaacobi, Labor's spokes- man on economic matters and probable choice for finance minister in a Labor- led government. Present finance Minister Yigal Cohen-Orgad has em- phatically stated that there will be no "election economics" practiced in the forthcoming campaign. In 1981, then-Finance Minister Yoram Aridor helped win the election for Likud by in- troducing massive tax cuts on expensive imported goods, thus presenting voters with an opportunity to acquire color , television sets, automobiles and other high priced consumer items at prices they couldn't resist. "Israel does not have enough dollar reserve to repeat Alidor's tricks-; - editorialized Ha'aketz. "Let- ting the economy loose in the coming months could lead to a very serious economic collapse even before the elections. - Shimon Peres has so far managed to stave off .both the openly admitted ambi- tions of Rabin and tacitly understood aspirations of former president Navon to replace him in the number one position on Labor's list. Peres has carefully included both of them in all his plans. He called Yitzhak Navon to come home from a lecture tour in South America in order to participate more Peres so far has managed to stave off Rabin and Navon. fully in election prepara- tions, and. has represented the three of them at the head of the ticket as a kind of troika of leadership, with Rabin slated for the position of defense minister and Navon to be given the cabinet post of his choice if Labor wins. The National Religious Party needs all the time it can get to set its political house in order. Splits within the party and competition from other religious parties raise serious doubts that early elections will bring them even the six Knesset seats they earned in the last election. NRP Party leader Yosef Burg, a cabinet mem- ber in every Israeli govern- ment to date, was himself caught by the Knesset vote in the midst of setting up a new alliance with far right elements within the reli- gious camp. Tami, founded in 1981 as a representative of the Sephardic population, also faces competition for its constituency from other parties, including a new ultra-Orthodox Sephardic party which did very well in the Jerusalem municipal elections this past fall. Also if either David Levy or Yt- zhak Navon, both Sephar- dim, should head one of the major parties, Tami will be hard-pressed to continue representing itself as the on- ly defender of Sephardi rights. Ezek Weizman's an- nouncement that he will head a new, as yet unnam- ed party, adds a new dimen- sion to the campaign. Although the charismatic Weizman is tremendously popular with Israelis, no one I talked to was prepared to vote for him without know- ing who his running mate would be and what he stood for, other than his initial statement that he was against the Lebanese war. favored extension of the peace process and wanted a balanced economy. "You're charming... nobody is as good as you for Yitzhak Navon a picnic, a party, a drink...it's a pleasure to be in your company, - wrote Dov Goldstein in an open letter to Weizman publish- ed in Maariu. "Now if you will only talk to us serious- ly and tell us what paths you will take, what your solution and suggestions are... - If Weizman gets his cam- paign off the ground, he could take votes away from both major parties. But Weizman's centrist posi- tions are most likely to at- tract voters who might otherwise vote for the small Shinui Party, whose two present representatives in the Knesset, Amon Rubens- tein and Mordechai Vir- shubsky, are respected by almost everyone as among the most competent and clear thinking parliamen- tarians that Israel has. In 1981, people largely voted for or against Mena- chem Begin — his personali- ty dominated the campaign. In 1984, voters are more likely to be influenced by issues, according to political analyst Hanoch Smith, with the economy and the war in Lebanon dominant. Group moves against UN • anti-Semitism United Nations (JTA) — The Board of Governors of the United Nations Asso- ciation (UNA) has unanim- ously adopted a resolution which objects to anti- Semitism at the UN, the In- ternational Council of B'nai B'rith reported. In a letter to Dr. Harris Schoenberg, director of UN Affairs for the International Council, Robert Ratner, president of the UN Asso- ciation, stated that at its last meeting, the UNA-U.S. Board acknowledged that "certain attacks against Is- rael" at the last General As- sembly "degenerated again into blatant a nti - Semitism." The association's board added that it is "disturbed that surprisingly few dele- gations bothered to object."