Halevy Resigns from Herut

Former Supreme Court Justice Binyamin Halevy has resigned from Herut, charging the right-wing nationalist faction with inflexibility and failure to come to terms with the political realities governing Israel’s future. Halevy said, however, that he would remain in the Knesset and continue to conduct his parliamentary activities within the framework of the non-Labor opposition Likud of which Herut is a constituent.

Haim Landau, the No. 2 man of Herut, responded to Halevy’s resignation by accusing the 65-year-old jurist of turning his back on the ideals that had brought him into Herut in whose name he was elected to the Knesset–the ideal of a “Greater Israel.”

Halevy’s resignation Tuesday was a serious blow to Herut which is embroiled in a controversy over whether Likud should join the Labor-led coalition of Premier Yitzhak Rabin on the government’s terms. Halevy suggested several days ago that Likud accept the government’s guidelines, the condition demanded by Rabin for a national unity coalition. Herut was adamantly opposed and his suggestion was turned down.

In his letter of resignation to Herut leader Menachem Beigin, Halevy said he felt the party refused to face realities after the Yom Kippur War and that it was fossilizing itself by the repetition of old formulas which confused ideology with what is possible. He charged that Herut failed to learn the basic lesson of the war which, according to Halevy, is that Israel’s future will not be determined by military power on the battlefield but by the super-powers and their policies. Israel should be willing to compromise as well as to be ready for war, he said.

Halevy, who was one of the presiding judges at the Eichmann trial, resigned from the Supreme Court five years ago to stand for election to the seventh Knesset. He was re-elected to the eighth Knesset a year ago.