INSIGHT

ZE'EV CHAFETS

Israel Correspondent

T

his week, if the pre-
sent trend holds,
Labor's Shimon Peres
will establish a new
government. And Yitzhak
Shamir, the septuagenarian
caretaker who replaced
Menachem Begin in 1983,
will, in all probability, head
off into the political sunset.
Despite the fact that he
has been prime minister for
more than five years, the
prospect of his departure is
causing little unhappiness,
even among his supporters.
Indeed, most Israelis still
consider Shamir as un-
familiar and enigmatic as he
appeared to be in 1983, when
he narrowly won a party poll
against David Levy and
became head of the Likud.
At that time, observers
noted that his primary
qualification for party
leadership seemed to be his
bland, colorless style.
Like his predecessor,
Begin, Yizhak Shamir was a
pre-state underground
leader, one of a triumvirate
who led Lehi, also known as
the Stern Gang. But, unlike
Begin, Shamir was a nuts-
and-bolts organizer, and he
never captured a place in the
public imagination.
After independence, while
Begin set up and led the
Herut Party, Shamir drifted
from one unsuccessful
enterprise to another. Final-
ly, in the mid-1950s, he join-
ed the Mossad, Israel's for-
eign intelligence agency,
where he served in total
anonymity for 10 years.
In 1965, Shamir came in
from the cold, but he re-
mained a drab figure. He
tried, and failed, to import
cars, briefly managed a
company that exported
rubber products, and spent
his spare time in a fruitless
effort to bring Soviet Jews to
Israel.
It was Menachem Begin
who brought Shamir into
Herut (the forerunner of the
Likud) and helped him get
elected to the Knesset. But,
as a legislator, Shamir con-

Shamir has a reputation for being untruthful.

two major achievements of
the post-Begin period —
Israel's withdrawal from
Lebanon and the successful
campaign against inflation
— were waged under Shimon
Peres' leadership. Shamir's
incumbency was marked by
his inability to stimulate the
economy, his failure to an-
ticipate or put down the Pa-
lestinian uprising, and by
diplomatic paralysis.
As a politician, Shamir
proved equally inept. He in-
herited a united Likud from
Begin, but managed to an-
tagonize powerful party
chiefs like David Levy and
Ariel Sharon by excluding
them from decision making
and ignoring their advice.
The prime minister also ac-
quired a reputation for being
untruthful; during the coali-
tion talks that followed the
1988 election, he broke
written promises to smaller
parties. When an outraged
politician asked what he
should do with one such
letter, Shamir blithely told
him "to hang it in a muse-
um."
Last year, at the urging of
Defense Minister Yitzhak
Rabin, Shamir offered the
single diplomatic initiative
of his career, the Shamir
Plan, which called for talks
with the Palestinians, elec-
tions in the West Bank and
Gaza, followed by negotia-
tions on the future of those
areas.
Critics warned that the
plan was just a delaying tac-
tic to ward off American
pressure. Their skepticism
now seems vindicated. The
plan encountered opposition
Shamir was chosen party
from the Likud hawks Ariel
leader, one Likud observer
Sharon and David Levy,
compared him to Chance,
whom Shamir had
the gardener in the novel
systematically ignored; and,
and movie, Being There.
eventually, the prime min-
"Shamir has never said
ister himself was forced to
anything, which people
abandon it.
mistake for wisdom; he's
That decision led, in turn,
never done anything, which
to the break-up of Shamir's
is misinterpreted as
government of national uni-
strength; and he doesn't
ty. And it was at this stage
stand for anything, which
that the character issue
people consider modera-
came home to roost. The Or
tion."
thodox Agudat Yisrael par
Indeed, in his years as
ty, one of the groups Shamir
prime minister, Shamir
tricked in 1988, paid him
managed to do virtually
back by declaring its ab
nothing of importance. The

The Failure
f Yitzhak Shamir

Likud is a weaker party than when he
inherited it from Menachem Begin, and as
prime minister he accomplished little
of lasting importance.

tinued to be a decidedly
unimpressive figure. In
1977, when Begin formed his
first government, Shamir
was passed over for a cabinet
spot, and was given the
largely ceremonial post of
Speaker of the Knesset. His
only notable act as Speaker
was abstaining in the
historic vote on the Camp
David accords.
When Moshe Dayan re-
signed as foreign minister,
Shamir was selected to
replace him. It was widely
believed at the time that
Begin appointed him be-

cause he was a yes-man who
could be counted on to carry
out the prime minister's
wishes. As foreign minister,
Shamir never rocked the
boat, offered no policy in-
itiatives and generally serv-
ed as a loyal subordinate.
Senior officials in the Min-
istry speak of him as a
steady, unimaginative fig-
ure, recalled mostly for his
taciturn, inept handling of
the government's informa-
tion efforts during the war in
Lebanon.
In 1983, following Begin's
surprise resignation, when

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