The political seesaw tilted sharply back toward Shimon Peres late Thursday, putting him once more within reach of forming a governing coalition led by the Labor Party.
His sudden change of fortune was brought about by Agudat Yisrael Knesset member Avraham Verdiger, whose equally sudden defection, along with colleague Eliezer Mizrahi, eight days earlier deprived Peres of what had seemed would be a guaranteed parliamentary majority.
Vcrdigcr, reversing his earlier reversal, said Thursday he could now in good conscience support a Labor regime, in obedience to Agudah’s Council of Torah Sages.
The ultra-Orthodox party’s supreme authority, which cut a deal with Labor two weeks ago, had ordered its five-member Knesset faction to back Peres.
The refusal of Verdiger and Mizrachi to comply on ideological grounds, was unprecedented defiance.
Verdiger, having made his peace with the sages, promised to try to influence Mizrahi to return to the fold, as well. That would assure Peres of the 61-vote Knesset majority he needs to establish a government.
Verdiger, who objects to Labor’s willingness to consider territorial concessions as a way to peace, claimed to have gotten written assurances from Labor that his views will not be compromised and his freedom of conscience respected.
LIKUD DEBATING DEAL WITH LIBERALS
The latest bombshell in Israel’s mercurial political process exploded as Likud’s Central Committee was engaged Thursday night in rancorous debate at the Binyanci Ha’uma convention center here.
The issue before Likud was whether to endorse an agreement its leadership signed with the Party for the Advancement of the Zionist-Liberal Ideals.
That renegade faction was established only a month ago by five former members of Likud’s Liberal Party wing, led by the ex-minister for economics and planning, Yitzhak Moda’i.
One of their number, Avraham Sharir, recently offered himself to Labor, in exchange for a safe scat on its next elections list.
The others worked a similar deal with Likud’s top brass, which included a guaranteed ministerial post for Moda’i, who a short while ago was one of the most scathing critics of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s peace diplomacy.
The deal shocked many of Likud’s idealistic young guard and turned the stomachs of some hardened political veterans, leaving in doubt whether the Central Committee would ratify it.
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