This Week

From The Mideast Front

A Slingshot Weddi

Bitl'ak and Sharon weigh costs and the benefit of unity.

DAVID LANDAU

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Jerusalem

rime Minister Ehud Barak and opposi-
tion leader Ariel Sharon are trying to get
their respective parties to join a national
unity government before the Knesset
begins its winter session Monday.
They are calling it a "government of national
emergency" and insisting that the ongoing violence
engulfing the Palestinian territories makes its cre-
ation a historic necessity.
But their supporters in the Labor and Likud parties
seem unconvinced and unenthusiastic.
Several Labor ministers and
legislators are arguing that a part-
nership with the Likud would
mean the end of even the most
slender remaining hope of reviv-
ing the peace process.
And many Likud legislators are
arguing that to join with Barak
now would rescue him from
almost certain defeat in a Knesset
no-confidence vote, perhaps as
early as next week, and also from
his likely defeat in the early elec-
tions that would follow his gov-
ernment's collapse.
Likud lawmakers also argue
that Barak, his policies in tatters,
Ariel Sharon
should be forced out in a no-con-
fidence vote, and a candidate who can win the peo-
ple's confidence should be elected in his place.

Bibi Or Arik?

They are not, however, necessarily referring to
Sharon.
Beyond the surface of the Labor-Likud negotia-
tions looms the presence of former Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu, who is more popular,
according to all the opinion polls, than either
Barak or Sharon.
Political observers believe that Netanyahu's
would be return to active politics is motivating
Barak and Sharon to override the opposition with-
in each of their parties and press ahead with forg-
ing a unity government.
Both party leaders, according to the observers,
want to defer elections. This is because Barak and
Sharon are certain that once elections are declared,
Netanyahu will plunge back into politics — first for
the Likud leadership in the party's primary, and then
in the general elections for the premiership.
For now, Netanyahu has been playing a cautious
and statesmanlike hand.
On Tuesday, speaking from Paris, Netanyahu said

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he favored a unity government — but only if it were
set up for a limited period, defined in advance, and
if all parties agreed that following this limited period
general elections would be held.
Netanyahu noted that, though not a legislator,
he is still a card-carrying member of the Likud
Central Committee, the party's highest policy-
making body, and that he would doubtless make
his voice heard whenever the committee meets.
Later Tuesday, at a stormy meeting of Likud leg-
islators, Michael Eitan demanded that if the party
does join a unity government, then Netanyahu
should be appointed one of its ministers.
A majority of the legislators plainly opposed a unity
government, but Sharon managed to prevent a vote.

Protest Of Doves

The negotiations with Labor were expected to con-
tinue, with the Likud Central Committee having the
final word.
Among Labor officials, dovish ministers like Yossi
Beilin and Shlomo Ben-Ami have been speaking bit-
terly — although privately so far — against a unity
government.
Beilin announced Monday that he would quit the
government if Sharon obtains — as he has demand-
ed — the right of veto over future peace moves as a
member of a unity government.
If Barak and Sharon do manage to force their will
on their colleagues, and a unity government is set
up, the initial reaction abroad is expected to be one
of anger.
Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount on Sept. 28 is
regarded among many of Israel's friends in Europe as
responsible, at least in part, for the current wave of
violence rocking the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
President Clinton himself has reportedly sought in
recent weeks to dissuade Barak from forming a gov-
ernment with Sharon.
In the Arab world, Sharon is regarded as an invet-
erate warmonger, and Israeli diplomatic and public

relations officials will have to work overtime to allay
fears that his inclusion in a unity government is a
prelude to some massive military initiative against
the Palestinians.
Barak insists that these negative effects will be
transient, and that they will be dwarfed by the sense
of unity and national purpose that will engulf the
nation once Labor and Likud are seen to be pooling
their forces and setting aside their differences.

Historic Precedents

In this, the prime minister harks back to the exam-
ples of past unity governments, especially to the one
created in May 1967, during the unnerving "waiting
period" before the Six-Day War.
At that time, street demonstrations took place
protesting against the perception that the govern-
ment of Levi Eshkol was hesitant to deal with the
threat facing the Jewish state.
The upshot was that Eshkol had Moshe Dayan,
then an opposition legislator, join the cabinet as
minister of defense. Also, the ostracized Gahal bloc
— the largest of the con-
stituents that later formed the
Likud — of Menachem Begin
joined the government.
Today, too, the polls consis-
tently show that a majority of
Israelis would like to see a
-1" unity government formed, and
8 that they would feel more
secure and confident following
such a move._
But opponents of the move,
from both sides of the political
divide, cite the Labor-Likud
unity governments of the 1980s
as more pertinent examples.
At that time, neither of the
large parties was capable of
forming a stable coalition. In election after elec-
tion, they emerged virtually tied. As a result, a
unity government was the only option.
For Labor, under Shimon Peres and Yitzhak
Rabin, this spelled diplomatic paralysis. Even
when Foreign Minister Shimon Peres managed to
reach a breakthrough agreement with King
Hussein of Jordan in 1987, Prime Minister
Yitzhak Shamir was able to foil it, since it provid-
ed for concessions that Shamir was not prepared to
contemplate.
Beilin and the other opponents of unity now say
the same state of paralysis would descend on Israel
today if Likud joins the government.
Barak's supporters say the peace process is going to
be dormant for a long time to come, and what mat-
ters in the short term is Israel's strength and
resilience in the face of the Palestinians' violence.
They warn, moreover, that this violence could
quickly spread to involve other Arab states.
Indeed, Barak, in a formal letter to Sharon this
week, cited Iraqi troop deployments along the Iraqi-
Jordanian and Iraqi-Syrian borders as providing
additional reasons for Israel to put its domestic dif-
ferences into abeyance and form a unity government
immediately. rf.J

