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New Government Rests
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Special to The Jewish News
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26
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1988
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ersualem — The char-
acter of Israel's next
government may be
decided this weekend by the
leaders and mentors of an
ultra-Orthodox political par-
ty scheduled to meet behind
colsed doors.
Shas, whose spiritual guide
is the former Sephardi chief
rabbi of Israel, Ovadia Yosef,
emerged from the Nov. 1 elec-
tions the largest of the four
religious parties and the third
largest faction in the Knesset.
It must decide whether to
align its six Knesset seats
with a coalition government
headed by Labor or one led by
Likud.
A meeting of the Shas
Council of Torah Sages has
been scheduled for Saturday
night, to be chaired by Yosef.
The council will hand down
the word to the party's new
Knesset faction.
It is scheduled to inform
President Chaim Herzog on
Sunday whom it recommends
he ask to form the next
government. The president
must choose the leader he
thinks most likely to succeed
in that task.
Herzog also will be meeting
Sunday with the represen-
tatives of two other religious
parties, Agudat Yisrael and
Degel Halbrah, which have
seven Knesset seats between
them.
They along with Shas, had
asked for postponements,
which the president grudg-
ingly granted. But Herzog
made it clear this week that
Sunday is his deadline. By
then he wants to know every
party's preference so he can
set in motion the coalition-
building process without fur-
ther delay.
The non-religious parties
already have lined up as
expected.
The leftist Mapam and
Citizens Rights Movement, as
well as the Center-Shinui
Movement, have declared
their preference for a Labor-
led government. They urged
Herzog to approach Foreign
Minister SHimon Peres.
The right-wing Techiyah,
Tsomet and Moledet parties
all have opted for a Likud
government headed by
Premier Yitzhak Shamir.
But neither Labor nor
Likud can form a government
with their respective
ideological allies alone.
They must have the
religious parties, and of the
four, Shas is pivotal. Accor-
ding to insiders, it is also
deeply divided.
Party strongman Arye Deri,
director general of the In-
terior Ministry, ig lobbying for
an alliance with Labor. He is
backed by most of the party's
Knesset faction.
But Rabbi Yosef and some of
the Knesset members have
come under pressure — some
of it crudely expressed in
anonymous telephone calls —
President Chaim Herzog:
Deadline is Sunday.
from rank-and-file voters
demanding that the party
cast its lot with Likud.
Peres and Labor's No. 2
man, Defense Minister Yit-
zhak Rabin, met with Yosef at
his home Monday. They
sought to persuade him that
the peace and security of the
state rests in his hands.
They urged him to support
Labor's moderate positions,
which include trading ter-
ritory for peace as part of a
final settlement with Israel's
Arab neighbors.
Peres and Rabin also place
hope in Degel Halbrah's men-
tor, Rabbi Eliezer Schach. He
wields powerfulinfluence
with Shas as well, and the
Laborites hope he will push
both parties in their direc-
tion, since he holds dovish
views on the Palestinian
issue.
But Likud, too, is importun-
ing the key spiritual leaders.
Herut hard-liner Ariel
Sharon met with Yosef last
Sunday and telephoned
Schach on Monday.
Labor holds an arithmetical
advantage in the race. It
needs only one of the
religious parties — Shas or
Agudat Yisrael — to put
together a narrow-based
coalition. Likud needs both.
Labor's hopes also rest on
the assumption that the
Chadash Communists would