Mapai Bows to Lavon; Lifts Three-week Deadline on ‘lavon Affair’ Report

After an arduous, all-day meeting today, the secretariat of the Mapai party finally adopted a resolution reaffirming the party’s previous decision calling for the formation of a five-member study committee to probe the Lavon case, but lifting the previous three-week deadline fixed for a report by the committee.

The lifting of the deadline was considered a victory for Pinhas Lavon; secretary general of Histadrut, in his long fight-against Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. Mr. Lavon has insisted right along that the three-week deadline would mean that the study group–probing into the entire issue, going as far back as Lavon’s 1955 resignation from the Defense Ministry over a “security mishap” that occurred in 1954–would constitute appeasement of Mr, Ben-Gurion. He said that the three-week limit would mean the committee would work “at pistol point, ” since Mr. Ben-Gurion had threatened to quit the Premiership if Lavon were not ousted from the Histadrut position.

The members of Mapai’s special Lavon investigating committee were also urged in the secretariat resolution not to resign from the group. Until now, Mrs. Golda Meir, the Foreign Minister, has insisted she could not serve on the committee, due to the pressure of her Foreign Ministry activities. Another member of the committee. Minister of Police Behor Shitreet, said he would not serve because his “views are well known.” He was a member of the Cabinet’s special Ministerial committee which on December 25, exonerated Mr. Lavon. A third member of the Mapai committee, Meir Argov, chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee of the Israel Parliament, said he would refuse to serve unless Mrs. Meir stayed on the study group.

The secretariat meeting was recessed for a short time while an effort to work out a compromise among the various factions was under taken by Finance Minister Levi Eshkol, who is considered a “centrist” in the Lavon–Ben-Gurion fight. That meeting was held at Mrs, Meir’s home here. Later, the entire Secretariat met again, and the resolution lifting the three-week deadline was carried.