Former Defense Minister Ezer Weizman may soon be back in the political limelight. Premier Menachem Begin has asked Weizman to meet with him, the first official meeting between the two men since Weizman left the Cabinet in 1980.
The former defense chief is scheduled to brief Begin on his talks in Cairo, where he went on private business but met with a number of government officials, including President Hosni Mubarak. There was speculation here that the Premier would use the opportunity to urge Weizman to return to the Herut movement and to political life.
Weizman, who as Defense Minister played a major role in the Camp David meetings of September 1978 and in subsequent negotiations of the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, left the Cabinet because of serious policy differences with Begin.
There had been talk late last year that Weizman intended to establish a new centrist political party to participate in the next Knesset elections. But Weizman, himself, has refrained from either confirming or denying such a move. A new political party headed by him could constitute a threat to both Likud and the Labor Alignment in the manner of Yigael Yadin’s Democratic Movement for Change which won 15 seats in the 1977 elections, contributing to Labor’s defeat by Likud.
Weizman reportedly discussed with Egyptian leaders ways and means to normalize the relations between the two countries, which have been in deep freeze since the war in Lebanon began, to renew the autonomy talks, and to enable the return of the Egyptian Ambassador to Israel.
Meanwhile, Energy Minister Yitzhak Modai has left for Cairo, at the invitation of his Egyptian counterpart, Ahmad Illal. This is the first official visit by an Israeli minister since the Lebanon war began.
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.
