Coalition Government Moves Gain Drive

Efforts to form a new Labor-led coalition government gained momentum here today. The Labor Party announced the appointment of an 11-member committee headed by Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir to negotiate with potential coalition partners. Labor is seeking to re-form its previous coalition with the National Religious Party and Independent Liberal Party, and the possible addition of the Aguda bloc. But it faces the difficult task of resolving the NRP’s demands for greater religious control and the ILP’s insistence on more liberal religious policies. In addition, the NRP is continuing its drive for a national coalition that would embrace Likud, the largest opposition party.

Two NRP Knesset members representing the party’s “young guard”–Zevulun Hammer and Yehuda Ben Meir–met with Defense Minister Moshe Dayan in Tel Aviv yesterday to solicit his support for a broad-based coalition. Dayan reportedly told them that he deferred to Premier Golda Meir on that matter and indicated he would not initiate any steps. Mrs. Meir adamantly opposes any coalition that would include Likud.

Dayan also met yesterday with Likud leader Menachem Beigin at Dayan’s home in Tel Aviv. No disclosures were made on that meeting except an announcement that the two had discussed topics of “mutual interest.” Beigin is due to meet tomorrow with NRP leader, Dr. Yosef Burg, to discuss the possibilities of a national coalition. Beigin said last night that there was definitely a basis for establishing a broad coalition. He told the central committee of Likud’s Herut wing that the way was open to find a formula for basic policy lines on which a wall-to-wall coalition could be formed.

OTHER MOVES UNDER CONSIDERATION

But Sapir and Labor Party Secretary General Aharon Yadlin said just the opposite at a meeting of the Labor Alignment center. They both stressed that Likud’s opposition to territorial compromise would prevent Israel from continuing with the Geneva peace talks. Most political observers believe that the NRP will eventually abandon its efforts to form a national coalition and join with Labor despite severe pressure from the party’s more militant wing. They also believe that prospects for drawing the Orthodox Aguda bloc into a Labor coalition have diminished.

It appeared today that the major obstacle to a Labor-NRP-ILP coalition lay in reconciling the divergent positions of the NRP and the Liberals. ILP leader Moshe Kol has suggested a new coalition government without any binding policy lines, meaning that its members would be allowed to vote according to their conscience on such vital matters as the issue of “Who is a Jew?” and Gideon Hausner’s controversial bill to institute limited civil marriage in Israel.

As an alternative, Kol proposed a coalition of the Labor Alignment, the ILP and Shulamit Aloni’s new Civil Rights list which would command 61 seats in the 120-member Knesset including the three Labor-aligned Arab seats. According to Kol, either alternative could serve as the starting point for a wider coalition embracing Likud.