Likud’s control of Israel’s largest city appeared certain today after the party reached a working agreement with the Independent Liberals that would give it a 16 vote margin in the 31-member city council. The announcement that an understanding had been reached and that both parties had agreed-on a working team was made after a 2 1/2 hour meeting here between Likud leader Gen. Shlomo Lahat and an ILP group headed by Itzhak Artzi. An official agreement may be signed tomorrow.
The announcement killed the hopes of incumbent Laborite Mayor Yehoshua Rabinowitz to remain in office despite his party’s defeat in Monday’s municipal elections. Rabinowitz had announced yesterday that he would try to form a coalition with the ILP and the religious parties that would have overcome Likud’s 14-11 edge over, the Labor Alignment. But the Liberals went along with Lahat despite severe pressure from Labor Party leaders. The ILP is a member of Premier Golda Meir’s old coalition government and is considered likely to join the new government she is trying to form. But that proved to be of no avail in Tel Aviv.
Moshe Kol, the Minister of Tourism and the ILP’s national leader said-today that the Tel Aviv branch of the party had to make its own decision and he would keep out of it. The decision went for Likud apparently because of the voter trend in that direction.
No details were released on the Likud-ILP agreement. It is expected that the ILP will be given several senior posts in the city council, including that of deputy mayor and possibly even first deputy mayor. Lahat, a reserves officer personally popular with Tel Aviveans, is expected to become mayor, the first non-Labor mayor of Tel Aviv in 16 years.
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.
