Behind the Headlines Labor Party Torn by Internal Strife

The Labor Party which led the country for 29 years has not yet–three months after it lost power to Likud–been able to emerge as an effective opposition party to the government of Premier Menachem Begin. Instead, leading Labor leaders are devoting more efforts to attacking former Defense Minister Shimon Peres, the leader of the Labor Alignment, than the Likud government.

Initially, the Labor Alignment may have been in shock over its unexpected rejection by the voters in addition it could not work out its tactics as an opposition party until it knew whether the Democratic Movement for Change would join the government.

But now that this is settled it appears that the real problem is the continued struggle within the Alignment, especially the Labor Party itself. Yitzhak Ben Aharon, the former Histadrut secretary general and long-time critic of the Labor establishment, told a Hakibutz Hameuchad meeting recently that he did not believe that the Likud government would remain in office long, but that Labor would not replace it. Instead, he saw a new movement emerging.

Ben Aharon, a leader of the Achdut Haavodah faction in the Labor Party, said Likud was suffering from the same ailment as Labor, glorifying its leader. He said Labor had done this rather than stressing Socialist Zionism.

Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan, who was elected to the Knesset on the Labor Alignment ticket, said he agreed to join the Likud government because the Labor Party was moving away from the viewpoint which he had always held and which was the majority belief, to a view closer to that of Mapam, its partner in the Alignment. In an interview with Yediot Achronot, Dayan said another reason for his joining the Likud government was the negative attitude of the Labor Party toward him which continued even after Peres was elected chairman of the party.

PERES IS UNDER INCREASING ATTACK

Peres, meanwhile, has also come under attack from former Premier Yitzhak Rabin and former Foreign Minister Yigal Allon. Rabin told Davar that he does not accept Peres as the party’s leader. Allon blames Peres for the Labor defeat, saying it was not caused by the scandals in the Labor government but because the Alignment’s platform was not sufficiently different from Likud.

In a reply to his critics, Peres said that the opposition to him was personal and not based on ideology. He said Labor could only win back the electorate’s confidence if it cleaned its house of corruption and scandals and abandoned borrowed ideologies. “Our socialism is derived from our Biblical heritage, not from Marx and Lenin,” Peres declared.

To this, Ben Aharon replied, “We are all commanded to make obeisance to the chairman. This was borrowed from Maoist terminology.” Ben Aharon said the decline of the Labor Party began two decades ago when David Ben Gurion compromised on socialism. “We have to escape from this corrupt and corrupting Social Democratic Party which has established the rule of money and property in Israeli society,” he said.

He accused the Mapai faction in Labor of trying to get rid of groups in the Labor Alignment that do not follow its line, especially Mapam. Ben Aharon suggested that the Alignment copy the example of Likud which is comprised of individual independent parties which work together yet maintain their specific character.

Meanwhile, many Labor members are calling for an end to this bickering and urging the Alignment to take up its role as a fighting opposition. They note that a democracy such as Israel requires an effective opposition party.