First Challenge of Shamir Coalition is Resolving Bids for Cabinet Posts

Prime Minister-designate Yitzhak Shamir won unanimous approval for his new right-wing government Sunday from the Likud Central Committee and expressed confidence it would serve out a full term, despite its narrow base.

But the coalition the Likud leader has put together with the Orthodox and right-wing parties could still founder in the Knesset, where a confidence vote was scheduled for Monday.

Shamir read out a list of Likud ministers identical to those serving in the present transitional government.

He did not specify their portfolios. But the fact that David Levy’s name was read after his own indicated that David Levy’s name was read after his own indicated that Levy may be given the rank of vice premier. He is also widely rumored to be Shamir’s choice for foreign minister.

Moshe Nissim’s name was third on the list, indicating most likely that he will hold the rank of deputy prime minister.

Moshe Arens, foreign minister in the transitional regime, is likely to be named defense minister in the new government.

Also slated for major posts are two hard-line Likud ministers who quit the Cabinet in policy disputes with Shamir before the Likud-Labor unity government fell on March 15.

Ariel Sharon is expected to be appointed minister of housing with special responsibility for immigrants from the Soviet Union.

Yitzhak Moda’i will be the new finance minister, the portfolio held in the unity government by Labor Party leader Shimon Peres.

But Shamir, who officially informed President Chaim Herzog late Friday afternoon that he had succeeded in forming a government, faces residual disaffection within Likud that could lose him his two-vote edge in the 120-member parliament.

A COMMITMENT TO PEACE PROCESS

Several Likud Knesset members have threatened directly or indirectly to withhold their support unless they receive ministerial positions.

Counting on a 62-seat Knesset majority to vote his coalition into office, Shamir said he would decide only on Monday whether to go ahead with his Knesset presentation if these dissenters held their ground.

Likud sources optimistically maintained that the dissent would evaporate as the crucial vote approached and that Shamir would swear in his new Cabinet on Monday night.

Shamir seems to have satisfied his far-right coalition partners on the ideological level. But in doing so, he may have set the stage for a government crisis the first time it must make a major policy decision.

The new governmental guidelines will state that “the government will further the cause of peace in accordance with the Camp David accords and the May 1989 peace initiative.”

But the right-wing Tsomet and Tehiya parties have exempted themselves from any such commitment. They were permitted to append to the platform a letter to the prime minister reserving a free vote for themselves on all issues pertaining to autonomy or elections in the administered territories.