BACKGROUND
You are not alone.
If Thou Loan Money to My People, Thou
Shalt Not Lay Upon Him Interest."
EXODUS XXI1,24
Sticking It Out In Jerusalem
Like it or not, the political futures of both the Labor and Likud
parties are dependent on each other.
were underway to break the
impasse and devise a face-
saving formula that would
defuse the crisis and allow the
government to survive.
HELEN DAVIS
Foreign Correspondent
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117 7
design studio
s•ael's political crisis
deepened this week as
Labor Party leaders con-
tinued to publicly express
their determination to bolt
the 7-month-old national uni-
ty government.
Their decision to pull out of
the coalition with the Likud
bloc was taken at a meeting
of the Labor leadership
bureau on Monday and is
scheduled to be presented to
Labor's Central Committee
for ratification "in the coming
weeks."
Labor's anger was provoked
by the Likud Party's adoption
late last week of a fou•-point
declaration that was clearly
designed to embarrass the
party leader, Prime Minister
Yitzhak Shamir, and scuttle
the government's peace
initiative.
More specifically, it was
aimed at undermining the
proposed elections in the West
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34
FRIDAY, JULY 14, 1989
Yitzhak Shamir
Bank and Gaza Strip, which
are intended to produce
Palestinian representatives
who would negotiate with
Israel over a form of self-rule
and, three years later, over
the final disposition of the
territories.
The declaration — widely
perceived as an amendment
to the peace initiative — was
proposed by Shami•'s three
main challengers for power,
led by Trade Minister Ariel
Sharon, who had described
the plan as the most serious
threat to Israel's survival
Ariel Sharon
since the establishment of the
State.
The amendment, which
won the last-minute, grudg-
ing support of Shamir,
pointedly rejected:
• Progress toward peace un-
til Palestinian violence has
ceased;
• The participation of East
Jerusalem Arabs in the pro-
posed Palestinian elections;
• A halt to future Jewish
settlement in the territories;
• An independent Palesti-
nian state in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip.
Labor Party leaders
declared that the terms of the
Likud declaration had dealt a
fatal blow to the peace in-
itiative and that they could
no longer justify their par-
ticipation in a coalition with
the Likud.
Shamir loyalists, however,
swiftly mounted a damage-
cont•ol exercise. In an inten-
sive bout of talmudic argu-
ment, they argued that the
Likud's vote was binding on-
ly on the Likud bloc and that
it did not affect the peace in-
itiative, which is the product
of the national unity
government.
Both Likud and Labor
leaders met with religious
leaders this week in an at-
tempt to win their support for
narrow-based coalitions in
the event that the national
unity government were to
collapse.
For all the rhetoric and
public posturing, however, it
is unlikely that Labor will
give concrete expression to its
threats or that the govern-
ment will fall in the
foreseeable future, despite the .
efforts of radicals at both ends
of the political spectrum.
Late this week, there were
signs that serious attempts
One formula that is now be-
ing actively canvassed on
both sides of the political
divide is for the original in-
itiative to be put again to the
cabinet, where, despite the
opposition of Shamir's three
rivals, it is certain to receive
a substantial majority. At the
same time, the four-point
Sharon plan would also be
put to the cabinet, and be
decisively defeated.
Foreign Minister Moshe
Arens, one of Shamir's prin-
cipal lieutenants, hinted at
just such a solution when he
told reporters in Jerusalem
this week: "Any proposal to
introduce changes in the
cabinet decision concerning
the peace initiative will be re-
jected by a vast majority.
Therefore, there is no reason
for Labor to leave the govern-
ment."
Political commentators note
that while the Labor officials
had voted unequivocally and
overwhelmingly for the
dissolution of the govern-
ment, they chose to defer a
final decision until the mat-
te• had been considered at an
unspecified future date by the
party's central committee — a
hiatus that would allow time
for Band-Aids to be applied to
the wounds.
With a powerful right-wing
tide running through Israeli
society at present, Labor Par-
ty officials fear that they
would be badly bloodied if
fresh elections were held now.
Indeed, the usually p•o-
Labor, Hebrew-language dai-
ly Hadashot lambasted the
party for "its mad dash
toward dismantling the
government" and warned
that "whoever pushes the
country into the maelstrom of
elections and destroys the
economic framework is liable
to emerge the loser."
"Labor leaders are ignoring
the wishes of the public,
which wants the national uni-
ty government to continue
and which opposes fresh
elections.
"If there were genuine
reasons for the move, it would
be possible to understand the
decision and to regret it,"
noted the paper. "But Labor's
explanations for the timing of
the decision are neither con-