Behind the Headlines Cracks in the Likud Bloc

The Likud bloc last week ended a series of lengthy discussions on its policy platforms on the crucial issues of defense and foreign policy. The discussions were held in the hope of galvanizing the different groupings of Likud into a more united and harmonious whole. However they only broadened and deepened the cracks that have been in evidence for some time between the various factions and within the factions themselves.

After the first of the discussion sessions, where widely divergent views were voiced and the divergencies were immediately highlighted in the press, Likud leader Menachem Beigin gave orders that the subsequent sessions were to be held in utter secrecy. But enough has leaked out from the later sessions, too, to show that Likud faces real dangers of splitting at the seams as the “moment of truth” approaches: the moment when Israel will open its long-delayed dialogue with Jordan on the future of the West Bank.

Ariel Sharon, architect of the Likud, pleaded at the final discussion session for unity. He urged the “hawks” to marshall all their persuasive powers in an effort to convince the “doves” of the error of their ways. The Rabin government was weak, parliamentary, and, therefore, morally, Sharon declared. It would not dare offer King Hussein concessions if the Likud–force fully and unitedly–opposed any such concessions.

Sharon in his views on “the integrity of the land of Israel” is every bit as uncompromising as Beigin and his Herut stalwarts (barring Knesseter and ex-Justice Minister Binyamin Halevy whose declared support for a territorial compromise and a deal with the Palestinians make him a lone maverick in the Herut ranks). But Sharon by no means typifies in this the rank-and-file of his own Liberal Party.

DIFFERENCES REPORTED IN OTHER FACTIONS

Last week, a political reporter in Maariv attributed a detailed and markedly doveish (by Likud standards) plan for a “functional settlement” of the West Bank issue with Jordan to Liberal leader Elimelech Rimalt. Rimalt was said to advocate a Zahal presence and unlimited settlement rights for Jews throughout the West Bank–but alongside this Jordanian civil administration and Jordanian citizenship for those West Bankers who wished it. This, however, is hardly an idea which Beigin could embrace, since Beigin and Herut demand the outright annexation of the whole West Bank by Israel.

The divisions over fundamental policy, coming on top of personality differences, threaten to break apart the four-man Free Center faction which is part of Likud. Its chairman, Shmuel Tamir, long-time political adversary of Beigin, insisted during the discussion sessions that the Yom Kippur War had changed a great deal and Likud must redraft its policies–with a view to compromises–to accommodate these changed circumstances.

Tamir is backed by one Free Center Knesseter Akiva Nof, while the other two, Eliezer Shostak and Ehud Olmart favor a more orthodox Herut-leaning line. Differences in tone and stress were evident, too, in the speeches of the fourman State List faction at the Likud parleys.

There were rumors this week, too. of Liberal Party-inspired overtures to Premier Yitzhak Rabin to head for a unity government. Herut leaders. Including Beigin, vociferously opposed the idea. But certain Liberal Knesseters are understood to have suggested to their Labor Party friends that Rabin could well bring in the whole Likud now, and when the crunch with Jordan came, some, like Herut, would leave again while others, like many Liberals, or like Tamir, would stay in.

A lot of these calculations are still in the realm of speculation rather than reality. A lot will depend on Hussein and how he reacts to Israel’s various proposals. But the discussions which were intended to plaster over cracks in Likud seem to have succeeded in widening them.