The Herut Central Committee voted 306-207 last night to nominate Chaim Landau, Premier Menachem Begin’s personal choice, for a seat in the Cabinet, probably as Minister-Without-Portfolio. He was challenged by Shmuel Katz, an outspoken opponent of Begin’s peace plan. The Premier told his Herut colleagues during the stormy debate that preceded the balloting that he regarded a vote for Landau as a vote of confidence in his leadership and policies.
Begin received the vote of confidence, but by a 60-40 percent margin which was seen as a setback, if not a rebuke, to the leader whose decisions until now were adopted by unanimous acclaim. The vote also indicated the magnitude of the dissent within Herut over Begin’s proposals to return Sinai to Egypt and offer self-rule to the Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The Premier’s peace plan was approved by a vote of 168-15 in a ballot taken after the nomination of Landau. But by then hundreds had left the hall and fewer than 200 Herut members bothered to participate.
VISIBLY SHAKEN BY EVENTS
Begin, who was visibly shaken by the evening’s events, had appealed emotionally for support from the faction he has ruled for decades with an Iran hand. For hours he listened to speakers, many of whom attacked his peace plan and expressed concern for the future of settlements in the administered territories. When he finally took the podium, Begin found it necessary to remind Herut that he was the leader of the party and the government.
“I am the Prime Minister and I want Landau at this juncture and I do not now want Shmuel Katz,” he declared. He said he did not understand why Katz wants to join the government because the peace plan he opposed “is the policy of this government and this government will carry it out.”
Begin hinted that he might resign from the party if the vote went against Landau. “I ask you to give me your confidence. If I do not get it tonight I shall draw the necessary conclusions,” he said.
BASIS FOR FLAP OVER KATZ
Katz, one of Begin’s old Irgun comrades in arms, had served as the Premier’s special advisor on information and propaganda until he resigned last Friday in protest against the peace plan. Until then he had been one of Begin’s staunchest supporters. Following Likud’s election victory last May, Katz was sent to Washington as a personal emissary of the Prime Minister to explain Begin’s positions to leaders of the Carter Administration and Congress and to allay the fears of many American-Jewish leaders that Begin’s hard line would be an obstacle to peace.
Katz, who hoped to be in charge of Israeli propaganda efforts abroad, ran into resistance from Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan when he attempted to set up an information network independent of the Foreign Ministry. Katz complained that the Ministry refused to issue diplomatic passports to his people.
The Ministry countered that whoever holds a diplomatic passport must operate under the control of Israeli diplomatic missions abroad. But Katz attempted to go over the head of the Ministry when he circulated propaganda guidelines to Israeli missions abroad instructing then on what line to take on the issue of territories, the Palestinians and other matters. He issued similar guidelines to the Israeli news media, which the latter angrily rejected. Begin remained neutral in Katz’s dispute with Dayan. That dispute was given as the official reason for Katz’s resignation.
LABOR LEADERS SUPPORT BEGIN PLAN
Meanwhile, Shimon Peres, leader of the labor Party, expressed support last night for the government’s plan to strengthen settlements in Sinai. “The government must be supported in its attempt to strengthen our settlements and against any move to get us to fall back to the 1967 border,” he told a meeting of the party in Tel Aviv. Similarly, former Premier Yitzhak Rabin said a complete withdrawal from Sinai would harm Israel’s defense capability.
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