Rumors that Premier Golda Meir plans to drop Abba Eban from her Cabinet after the Oct. 29 elections were described yesterday as “unbased gossip” by Aharon Yadlin, secretary General of the Labor Party. Rumors concerning the future of Israel’s Foreign Minister have appeared in the press recently.
According to one story, Mrs. Meir told some of her closest Cabinet associates that she was resolved not to include Eban in her next government and wished to appoint a new Foreign Minister. Yadlin accused the opposition Gahal Party of circulating “baseless gossip” as fact as part of its election propaganda campaign. He said Mrs. Meir has said nothing about Eban’s Cabinet tenure.
But relations between the Premier and Eban are known to have been tense for a considerable time. Eban was not happy with Mrs. Meir’s selection of her former political secretary, Simcha Dinitz, for the key ambassadorial post in Washington. Eban’s relations with her were said to have deteriorated recently when the Foreign Minister was accused of disapproving Israel’s Aug. 10 interception of a Lebanese airliner.
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