Eleventh hour efforts were underway today to work out a compromise formula under which Gahal, Israel’s second largest political party, would join the broadly based national coalition government that Premier Golda Meir is trying to set up.
Mrs. Meir’s mandate ends at midnight Thursday by which time she must inform President Zalman Shazar that she has formed a new government, ask for more time, or resign. It was learned from the President’s office that Mrs. Meir has not requested an audience with the President for today or tomorrow. Earlier this week Mrs. Meir appeared to have accomplished her task of establishing a new government that would include Israel’s three major political factions and several minor ones. But a last minute snag developed when Gahal (Herut-Liberal alignment) insisted that it be given a free hand in certain specific matters, namely national health insurance and the compulsory arbitration of labor disputes. Gahal wanted the right to initiate legislation. The Labor Party insisted that no member of the government had the right to originate legislation which must emanate from the government as a whole.
The Minister of Interior, Moshe Shapiro of the National Religious Party, has been acting as an intermediary between Labor and the Gahal leadership. Gahal appeared to be amenable to a compromise that would give it a free hand to vote in the Knesset on legislation initiated by an opposition party. But the offer was complicated by a condition that would have Gahal waive its “free hand” in the event that the Prime Minister requested government parties to refrain from supporting a special bill in parliament.
Gahal has taken a determined stand on the issue of compulsory labor arbitration. The country has been plagued by strikes and slow downs during the past year, especially in ports and hospitals. Gahal wants “preliminary compulsory mediation and agreed arbitration” in most labor disputes but compulsory arbitration where a dispute threatens essential national services.
Gahal leaders Menachem Begin and Joseph Sapir were to meet today with Minister of Justice Yacov Shimming Shapiro in a further attempt to work out an acceptable compromise. The cabinet is meeting in extraordinary session tonight on urgent foreign policy matters. But it was hoped that a solution to the coalition problem would be forthcoming tomorrow.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
