Ben Gurion, Fate Still in Balance, Routs Knesset Dissidents

Premier David Ben Gurion forced a show-down today on the issue of Israel’s sale of arms to West Germany. He repelled a Communist non-confidence motion, and routed dissident members of his Government coalition in the Cabinet as well as in the Knesset’s Security and Foreign Affairs Committee.

Tonight, as Mr. Ben Gurion’s personal fate depended on a Knesset vote on his own motion that the Knesset reject proposals to cancel the arms deal, his Mapai Party, apparently confident of the outcome of this debate, began negotiations with the General Zionist and National Religious Parties for support of a “caretaker” administration to function until the general elections in November.

The Knesset rejected the Communist motion by a vote of 57 to five, with 37 abstentions. During the debate, spokesmen for the Communist, Herut and National Religious Parties bitterly assailed the deal, as did spokesmen for the Mapam and Achdut Avodah Parties, members of the coalition.

In a series of moves today, the Cabinet, with Mr. Ben Gurion abstaining from attendance, invoked the doctrine of collective responsibility and adopted a resolution requiring the Achdut Avodah and Mapam ministers to support the Government decision in Parliament “unless they resign before the vote.”

The two parties thereupon took their fight to the Knesset’s Security and Foreign Affairs Committee, where they had the support of the Herut and National Religious Parties, but were voted down nine to six by the Mapai, Progressives and General Zionists. The committee resolved that Israel’s security requirements warranted the arms deal.

The struggle shifted tonight to the Knesset floor, where debate was resumed on the Communist non-confidence motion. Earlier, Mr. Ben Gurion introduced a motion calling on the Knesset to defeat the Communist resolution to cancel the arms deal. The purpose and effect of this motion, in the light of the Cabinet’s collective responsibility decision, was to require the dissident ministers to vote with Mr. Ben Gurion or, by doing otherwise, automatically resign.

DISSENTERS ASSAIL ARMS DEAL IN DEBATE

The spokesmen for the dissenting parties in the debate tonight made it clear that the coalition partners had come to a final parting of the ways. Gen. Yigal Alon, speaking for Achdut Avodah, assailed the arms deal and Yaakov Hasan, of Mapam, denounced Mr. Ben Gurion for his “self-assumed prerogative to white wash Germany.”

As the last acts of the stormy drama were being played out in the Knesset tonight, representatives of Mr. Ben Gurion’s Mapai Party were negotiating with the General Zionist and National Religious Parties, seeking to establish a basis of existence for a “caretaker” regime from now until the November general elections, since the remaining coalition members–Mapai and the Progressives–would have less than 50 of the 120 votes in the Knesset.

The General Zionists reportedly agreed to passive support of the government, on condition that a neutral, non-party personality replace Israel Bar Yehuda, of Achdut Avodah, in the Ministry of the Interior. The Religious Party conditioned its agreement on a Government pledge to freeze the “Who is a Jew” issue, and to drop the present Minister of Religions, Rabbi Jacob Toledano.

When it resumed sitting today, the Cabinet approved a resolution that the Mapam and Achdut Avodah ministers were obliged to support in the Knesset the Government decision of last December, which authorized the sale of grenade throwers to West Germany. The resolution said that collective responsibility applied to the two parties “unless they resign before the vote.”

The meeting opened with Mr. Ben Gurion absent. The Premier thus reaffirmed his insistence, which he made clear by walking out of the Cabinet session yesterday, that he would not permit a division over an issue, once it was approved within the Government. After two hours, the Prime Minister was informed about the majority Cabinet vote.

COMMUNISTS, HERUT, JOIN IN ATTACK ON ARMS DEAL

The Knesset debate on the Communist non-confidence motion began last night, when Shmuel Mikunis, the Communist leader, called the arms agreement a disgrace, and accused Mr. Ben Gurion of aligning Israel with “warmongers.” Menachem Beigin, Herut leader, followed the Communist deputy’s line of argument that West Germany was not different from Nazi Germany. Mr. Beigin challenged Mr. Ben Gurion’s assertion that France endorsed or favored the Israel arms deal. He said Israel’s attitude toward Germany could not be the same as that of other countries, and Israel’s attitude toward other countries could not be the same as toward Germany.

Mr. Beigin said the Jewish nation, bereft of arms for 70 generations, had finally obtained and sanctified arms for its War of Liberation but, by arming Germany, Israel “would now desecrate that which it sanctified.”

Peretz Bernstein, of the General Zionists, said briefly that his party did not want open debate for security reasons, and would explain its position, already indicated as supporting the arms agreement, to the Knesset committee.

The Herut view was echoed tonight by Mr. Alon. The Achdut Avodah spokesman told the Knesset that the arms deal was an “abomination,” and he concurred with the Herut that the German Army today was composed of Nazis, and the German people was neo-Nazi. He quoted former Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett as authority for the statement that hatred of the Jewish people was rampant in Germany, and that the entire nation was responsible for the Nazi excesses.

He warned that, with Germany in the center of the East-West conflict, Israel had prejudiced its position by the arms deal which now provided the Soviet Union with a real reason to censure Israel.

The arms deal was assailed by two Religious Party spokesmen, Itzhak Rafael and Rabbi Mordechai Nurock. The latter, one of the chief foes of the German reparations treaty, passionately exclaimed that the arms deal amounted to a “vote of confidence in neo-Nazi Germany.”