Yitzhak Rabin. the new Labor Party leader, said today that his coalition talks with potential government partners would be as brief as possible and that if he found it impossible to form a new government within the present political structure he would have to call for new elections.
Rabin said after his election to his party’s leadership last night that he intended to form a coalition along the same lines as the outgoing one –a partnership of the Labor Alignment with the National Religious Party and the Independent Liberal Party. But most political observers took a dim view of his chances.
The key to a new Labor-led coalition and its survival is the NRP’s agreement to Join a new government on the basis of their participation in the old one, now a care-taker regime. Moshe Bar’Am, Labor’s Knesset Whip, said today that the understanding reached between the Labor Alignment and the NRP on the Who is a Jew Issue when Mrs. Meir formed her government last month still held and would serve a future government.
On the surface, this seemed possible. The security situation on the northern front which the NRP leadership cited as their reason for joining the old coalition in face of bitter opposition from within the party and the Chief Rabbinate has worsened over the past month. But so has the deep rift within the NRP.
NRP RELUCTANT TO JOIN RABIN GOVERNMENT
The NRP’s secretary general, Zvi Bernstein, said today, “The party will not join any government under conditions that will cause an internal crisis.” Dr. Joseph Burg, the Interior Minister in the care-taker government, said the small margin between Rabin and Information Minister Shimon Peres in the Labor Party’s balloting last night made it doubtful that Labor could form a stable government. “If the idea was to form a Cabinet to serve only until new elections there is no point in going through the agony of new coalition talks,” Burg said.
Zevulun Hammer, leader of the NRP’s militant “Young Guard” claimed that Rabin’s “dovish views” were not acceptable to the NRP which is adamantly opposed to any substantial territorial concessions to the Arabs. According to Hammer, there is no possibility of the NRP Joining a government headed by Rabin. The NRP is nevertheless expected to enter into talks with Labor. But its minimum demands will be the formation of a national unity government embracing the opposition Likud or surrender to Orthodox demands on the Who is a Jew issue.
Gideon Hausner, speaking for Labor’s other potential partner, the ILP. expressed doubt today that Rabin will be able to form a Cabinet under present conditions. He said the ILP would not Join a government based on less than a majority of seats in the Knesset unless it called for new elections at the earliest possible time. Dov Zakin of Mapam. Labor’s Alignment partner, said flatly that his party would never agree to make concessions to the religious parties. But Rabbi Menachem Porush, of the ultra-Orthodox Aguda bloc, said that Rabin represented “tabula rasa” (a clean slate) as far as the religious camp is concerned.
PREDICT RABIN WILL FAIL
Likud leader Menachem Beigin called on Rabin to return his mandate to the President who would then have to ask Likud, the second largest party, to form a government. Beigin said in that event he would seek a national coalition. Beigin accused the Labor Alignment of having no intention to form a new government but to prolong the-tenure of the care-taker regime until general elections at the end of the year.
Whether or not this is indeed Labor’s scheme, most observers believe that Rabin will attempt to form a new government but will fail, thus keeping the care-taker government in office until new elections are held, probably next fall. They believe that at some stage. Mrs. Meir will hand over the reins to Rabin who will lead the party through the next elections.
The Premier said tonight that she wishes Rabin success in forming a Cabinet “as soon as possible so that I can go home.” She called upon other parties to help him in his attempt to form a government and said “I will help him as much as I can.” Mrs. Meir added that if Rabin does not succeed the Knesset will have to declare new elections but implied that new elections should not take place until the Agranat Committee finishes its investigations.
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.
