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14 Friday, October 18; 1985.
a4V1111-T1'4'3L 1:10:1E10 3HT
THE DETROIT.JEWISH NEWS
-TAKING THE HELM
THEY
DON'T MAKE
SRAELI LEADERS
LIKE THEY
USED TO
Israel's rising young officials are
strong on intelligence,
administrative ability and
experience, but can you name three?
BY RAPHAEL BARAK AND
GARY ROSENBLATT
Quick: name five current
Israeli political leaders.
Not too tough, right?
There's Shimon Peres, Yit-
zhak Shamir, Yitzhak Ra-
bin, Ezer Weizman and
Abba Eban for starters
and you could probably
come up with a few more.
Now try naming even
one or two current leaders
under the age of 55.
Draw a blank?
You're not alone.
-Port of the problem is
lack of leadership but an
even bigger problem is the
political system in Israel
Raphael Barak of Balti-
more spent 13 years in Is-
rael as a journalist, army
spokesman, lecturer and
member of Kibbutz
Charzw. Gary Rosenblatt is
editor of The Jewish News.
Some of the material for
this article was based on
research by Simon Griner
in Jerusalem and Steve
Lipman of t e Jewish
Week in New York.
which has voters choose
between parties rather
than individual candi-
dates. So the parties, list
their big guns at the top of
the 120-name slate, -the
veterans in control, and
keep the newcomers way
down. If the party wins 15
seats, the tope 15 names on
the slate gain seats in the
Knesset. That way it takes
years and years for
younger candidates to
work their way up in the
party — sometimes they
never make it — and the
result is a youth-Oriented
Israeli society ruled by an
older generation.
The problem` -wasn't so
`n'oticeable' Under such
'charismatic and powerful
leaders as' David' 'Ben-
' -- Gurion; Golda -Meir and
Menachem Begin, but it is
'painfully evident today in
the bland Peres-Shamir
national unity government
that seems destined soon
to come unglued.
Who thin; wilr iireer the
Jewish ship of state into
,
the 21st century? Who will
provide the life's blood Is-
rael so desperately needs?
And how are the parties
dealing with the problem
— if at all?
The Labor Party, once,
dominant, has maintained
its image as an "old-
fashioned, smoke-filled
backroom party machine,"
according 'to Dr. Robert 0.
Freedman, graduate dean
of the Baltimore Hebrew
College. But the'.,Likud
Party sought to encounter
Labor's stodgyy appearance
by accenting youth:in the
1981 and 1984 eleaiens
says Freedman, and .the
fort proved "relotiYOYAuC7-
cessful."
Younger people titie -
beginning to s
through," notes Hanoc
Smith, Israel's leading .:
political pollster, "particli-
larly in Herut," the major
factor in the Likud coali-
tion. He explained that
under Menachem Begin's
centralized rule, - the" top'
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