LIFE IN ISRAEL
Herzog Calls On Shamir
To Form New Government
DAVID LANDAU
Special to the Jewish News
erusalem (JTA)— Pres-
ident Chaim Herzog
formally called on
Premier Yitzhak Shamir
Monday to form a new
government.
At the same time, Herzog
made clear to the Likud
leader his preference for a
broadly based regime that
would unite the country and
avert the alienation of
overseas Jewry.
Shamir seems most likely
instead to form a narrow
coalition led by Likud, with
the support of the ultra-.
Orthodox and right-wing
parties.
He got the nod from Herzog,
a full two weeks after election
day, only after the two largest
religious parties, Shas and
Agudat Yisrael, decided late
Sunday to align with Likud
rather than Labor.
Their combined 11 Knesset
seats will allow Shamir to
form a_ working majority in
the Knesset. The two other
religious parties are expected
to fall in line.
Herzog, whose office as chief
of state is non-political and
non-partisan, made his
preferences known by stress-
ing to Shamir the mounting
public pressure for a unity
government.
He noted widespread con-
cern among Israelis and Jews
abroad over the future Zionist
nature of the state and the
fragility of Jewish unity. And
he offered a withering crit-
icism of Israel's present elec-
tion system, which endows
minority parties with
disproportionate political
power.
Shamir was equally careful
in crafting his response to the
president. He said he would -
approach "all parties who
agree to serve in a Likud-led
government" to join him "ac-
cording to such terms as we
all agree to."
The premier said he was
"always a devotee of wide
government — what was call-
ed four years ago a unity
government," a reference to
the Likud-Labor partnership
established in 1984.
This remains the correct
formula today, Shamir said,
"and we will try to persuade
all the parties involved so
j
Storks pause in an Israel waterway. Are Israelis too concerned with life-and-death issues to care for the
environment?
Israelis' Continued Neglect
Endangers The Environment
NECHEMIA MEYERS
Special to The Jewish News
R
ehovot — Several near
disasters involving
dangerous chemicals
have alerted Israelis to
ecological dangers they usual-
ly tend to ignore.
In two cases, trucks carry-
ing highly toxic bromine
turned over and spilled their
cargo, with the result that one
man was killed and several
injured. These accidents oc-
curred, fortunately enough,
in sparsely-populated areas;
otherwise, hundreds or even
thousands of casualities could
have resulted.
Now, in reaction, steps are
finally being taken to ensure
that the transport of
dangerous chemicals is more
carefully regulated.
One body in Israel doesn't
wait for disasters to occur
before seeking to improve
ecological safeguards. It is
the Government's Environ-
mental Protection Service,
headed by Dr. Uri Marinov.
While Marinov's organiza-
tion lacks clout, and in most
cases can only advise official
bodies what should be done to
improve the environment, it
can point to substantial
achievements during the 15
years of its existence.
In 1973, for example,
sewage treatment was nearly
unknown; today, 80 percent of
Israel's municipal sewage is
treated and 70 percent is
reused. In 1973, organized
solid waste disposal was
nonexistent; today 60 percent
of solid waste is disposed of in
well-run, sanitary landfills.
In 1973, there were no
facilities for toxic waste
disposal; today, over 50 per-
cent of hazardous waste is
neutralized and disposed of by
safe means. Finally, in 1973,
most sewage was flowing
straight into the Mediterra-
nean; today, discharges have
stopped and the sea off the
Israeli coast is clean.
The record, however, is not
entirely positive. Water quali-
ty has deteriorated rather
than improved over the years,
largely as the result of im-
proper management, and par-
ticularly of overpumping from
the coastal aquifer. Moreover,
plans to reclaim polluted
streams have not materializ-
ed and most of them carry
foul-smelling effluents rather
than fresh water.
More significantly, ordinary
Israelis have yet to be con-
vinced that they too must con-
tribute to improving the en-
vironment. This is evident
from the way that normally
law-abiding men and women
casually throw litter out of
the window when they are
traveling along the country's
highways or thoughtlessly
leave garbage scattered on
the ground at the end of a
picnic.
Public service ads in the
papers and on television fre-
quently remind people to
"keep Israel clean," but so far
they have had little effect.
Perhaps, however, there is
still hope. A decade ago, when
the counry's wildflowers were
threatened with extinction, a
campaign — which started in
the schools and then spread
through the population as a
whole — successfully persuad-
ed Israelis to stop picking
them.
One of the quandries facing
devoted environmentalists is
the fact that Israel has so
many pressing, life-and-death
problems that questions of
clean air, water and picnic
grounds are apt to see
irrelevent.
that we can set one up this
time, too."
A new Labor-Likud coali-
tion, however, seems hardly
likely at the moment. Labor
Party Secretary-General Uzi
Baram is less than enthusias-
tic over the idea. He acknowl-
edged that certain broad cir-
cles in Labor seem amenable,
provided Likud approaches
them on the basis of parity.
Baram conceded, however,
that Labor is in no position to
demand a rotation of the of-
fice of prime minister, such as
occurred in the outgoing
unity government.
Labor won three more
Knesset seats than Likud in
1984. The reverse occurred in
the 1988 elections, with
Likud winning 40 to Labor's
39.
Shamir told Herzog he was
aware of the concern and
fears, especially among U.S.
Jewry concerning ultra-
Orthodox parties' demands
Yitzhak Shamir: He has 21 days.
that the next goverment
guarantee swift passage of an
amendment to the Law of
Return that would redefine
who is a Jew in Israel.
The amendment would not
grant automatic citizenship
to those converted to Judaism
by non-Orthodox rabbis. The
change is fiercely opposed by
Conservative and Reform
Jews, who constitute the vast
majority of affiliated Jews in
the United States and other
Diaspora countries.
Shamir said the outgoing
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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