PLO page 64

FURNITURE OUTLET

favor of uprooting settlements,"
said Zehava Gal-On, secretary-
general of the Citizens Rights
Movement, the largest of
Meretz's three factions. "I don't
hear the Labor Party talking
about that." (Actually quite a few
Labor Knesset members have
been talking about just that.)
"Our role is the same as it was
before — to say the things that
Labor is reluctant to say, and to
pull them into the future," Gal-
On said. 0

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her back into the fold. So far,
none has been found.
But the party Mr. Sarid now
leads has been made almost re-
dundant by peace, and Ms.
Aloni's departure threatens to
cripple it.
Meretz now holds 12 out of the
Knesset's 120 seats, making it
the largest of Israel's small par-
ties. But even before Ms. Aloni's
announcement, polls consistent-
ly showed Meretz losing a third
of its support, mainly to Labor.
The great fear in Meretz is that
Ms. Aloni will form a new politi-
cal party focussing on civil rights
— an idea she is considering —
and cut further into the party's
strength.
"Meretz has stood for two
things — peace, which is Mr.
5a/id's bailiwick, and civil rights,
which is Aloni's. Labor is now the
leading party for peace, and if

"There were times
when we felt that in
its quest for peace,
Meretz did not place
enough emphasis on
the struggle for
freedom of
religion."

— Zamira Segev

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Aloni sets up a new party for civ-
il rights, she could take two or
three seats from Meretz, leaving
it with only four or five. That
would remove Meretz's reason for
existence," said Arye Ruttenberg,
a political consultant for the La-
bor Party.
Meretz has also watched La-
bor, in the aftermath of the Ra-
bin assassination, become the
party of idealists. Many young,
first-time voters looking for a
cause to unite behind see Labor
as a more inspiring symbol than
Meretz these days.
But Meretz activists, natural-
ly, believe they still have a large
function to fill. "We're in favor
of a Palestinian state. We're in

Weizman Visits
Czech Republic

Prague (JTA) — Ten days before
the modem state of Israel was es-
tablished, Ezer Weizman came
to the Czech Republic to le=
how to fly a Messerschmitt air-
plane.
The Israeli president arrived
again, this time on a three-day
state visit.
He was greeted at the airport
by Czech Foreign Minister Josef
Zielenec, and was then whisked
away to Prague Castle for a meet-
ing with Czech President Vaclav
Havel.
The two leaders discussed gen-
eral relations between Israel and
the Czech Republic, and also dis-
cussed accords between the two
countries. At least one of the ac-
cords involves agriculture.
Mr. Havel also awarded Mr.
Weizman the Czech Order of the
White Lion, the country's high-
est state honor.
The award was "an expression
of the exceptional esteem in
which the Czech Republic holds
Israel," said Mr. Havel's
spokesman, Ladislav Spacek.
At a news conference, Mr.
Weizman praised the former
Czechoslovakia as one of the only
countries that assisted Israel in
the 1948 War of Independence.
The nascent Jewish state
bought eight Messerschmitts
from Czechoslovakia that year,
and Mr. Weizman was one of
eight pilots sent here to learn how
to fly them.
He was in the Czech town of
Ceske Budejovice when the State
of Israel was established.
Mr. Weizman reminisced
about celebrating the event with
Czech friends and the popular
plumb brandy, Slivovice.
Also, Mr. Weizman was giv-
en an award by Charles Univer-
sity here in recognition of his
literary and political science writ-
ings.
Mr. Weizman was scheduled
to meet Czech Prime Minister
Vaclav Klaus and Milan Uhde,
the parliamentary chairman, be-
fore leaving.