Former Defense Minister Moshe Dayan announced today that he will not run for re-election to the Knesset on the Labor Alignment ticket May 17. He did not say whether he would seek a Knesset seat as an independent candidate or head a new list or if he would join the Likud opposition.
Dayan did not say that he would leave the Labor Party, of which he has been a member for 20 years. But his refusal to run as an Alignment candidate reflected the schism that has developed within the Party on foreign policy issues, specifically the future of the West Bank. Over the weekend Dayan delivered what some Labor leaders viewed as an ultimatum to reverse a controversial election platform plank that said Israel was ready to negotiate territorial concessions in “all sectors” in return for a full peace settlement.
Dayan demanded that Premier Yitzhak Rabin reconfirm a Labor Party pledge dating from the Administration of former Premier Golda Meir that a national referendum would be held before the government agreed to any settlement that involved territorial concessions on the West Bank. He said that otherwise he could not support the Labor platform.
Rabin promptly rejected Dayan’s demands. “The issue was not included in the Party’s platform for the outgoing Knesset and Dayan did not suggest that it be included in the platform for the new Knesset.” the Premier said. He said his government has not reversed the national referendum pledge and “Thus the subject remains open.” He said it may have to be discussed by the appropriate Party bodies, “but not in the shadow of an ultimatum.”
FORESHADOWS CRITICAL DEBATE
Rabin made his remarks after a meeting with Labor Party Secretary General Meir Zarmi. Both agreed that Dayan should be included in the Labor Alignment Knesset list. Dayan’s withdrawal foreshadows the crucial debate that might occur within Labor and in the nation as a whole when the “moment of truth” arrives for a decision on the future of the West Bank.
The platform plank opening “all sectors” to negotiations was inserted at the insistence of Mapam which threatened to break with the Labor Alignment on that issue. Dayan led the bitter opposition to it at the Labor Party convention last month and was defeated by only a few dozen votes. Some observers said he might try to revive the issue at the Labor Party Central Committee meeting tomorrow in a final test of his strength within the Party.
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