Katzir Begins Consultations to Find Replacement for Mrs. Meir

President Ephraim Katzir began intensive consultations for a new government today as Israel mourned the dead of the Kiryat Shemona massacre and its armed forces were locked in battle with the Syrians on the Golan Heights after a retaliatory raid against terrorist strongholds in southern Lebanon.

With the Passover holiday hardly ended. Katzir dug into the task of finding a national leader capable of replacing Premier Golda Meir who resigned last Thursday along with her Cabinet which is now serving as a care-taker regime. Katzir met for 80 minutes this morning with a six-member delegation of the Labor Alignment representing all of its factions and headed by coalition chairman Moshe Baram. He also received delegations during the day from Likud. Moked and the Civil Rights Party, all members of the Knesset opposition.

Katzir reportedly agreed to meet again with the Labor Alignment within a reasonable time. He stressed, however, that he would brook no delay in the selection of a new leader and indicated that 10-14 days was the limit he would allow, The President also made it clear that he would not tolerate another drawn-out process of Cabinetmaking such as took place between Jan. and March.

HOPE NEW ELECTIONS WILL NOT BE NECESSARY

Baram reportedly promised Katzir that Labor’s various decision-making forums will chose a successor to Mrs. Meir within the allotted time. But the Labor Alignment seemed as divided today as ever. According to Baram, representatives of the former Mapai faction expressed hope to Katzir that a new coalition of Labor, the National Religious Party and the Independent Liberal Party could be formed without new elections. But the ex-Rafi spokesmen favored a national unity government embracing the Likud opposition, while Achdut Avoda urged new elections without delay. Baram did not report the views expressed by Mapam.

Katzir has not said what he planned to do if Labor, the majority party, failed to meet his deadline. Sources close to the President said his next step would be to ask Likud leader Menachem Beigin to try to form a government. Should Beigin fail, the President would report to the Knesset Speaker that no candidate could form a Cabinet and the Knesset would have to set a date for new elections.

Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir, who is considered in some circles to be the most likely successor to Mrs. Meir, conceded today that the situation within the Labor Party was “serious” but expressed confidence that the party will “heal itself.” He said in a radio Interview, however, that if Labor falls from power, “I shall not Jump from the eighth floor or even from the second.”

Another possible candidate for Premier Meir’s post, Haifa Mayor Yosef Almogi who served as Labor Minister in the previous government, said in a radio Interview that he supported clear legislation that would make every Cabinet minister individually and the Cabinet as a whole responsible for all actions of the government. Almogi said the Labor Party lacked “a clear road and a uniting force” but he would not take a position on whether Defense Minister Moshe Dayan should resign.

Sapir. In an interview Friday, had blamed Dayan’s refusal to resign directly for precipitating Mrs, Meir’s resignation. Sapir and Almogi both Insisted that they were not candidates for the Premiership.

FOREIGN POLICY WILL NOT BE AFFECTED

Another non-candidate who has been mentioned as a possible successor. Foreign Minister Abba Ehan. said in a radio interview today that Israel’s internal political situation would not affect its foreign policy. Eban said the present care-taker government had full power to fulfill Israel’s obligations on the international scene and was in fact obliged to do so.

He said all Israeli delegations abroad have been instructed to make clear to the governments to which they are assigned, and to the local Jewish communities, that the interim regime is fully empowered to represent Israel. “We do not ask” for any delays in the disengagement talks with Syria nor in any other talks with any other foreign power.” Eban declared.

Some observers reported today that Mrs. Meir has decided to relinquish most of the burdens of her office if not its formal trappings during the tenure of her interim regime. The sources said she would transfer much of her authority to another minister. According to political columnist Shlomo Nakdimon writing in Yediot Achronot. the recipients will be either Sapir or Deputy Premier Yigal Allon. The Prime Minister’s Office refused to comment on that speculation. But the consensus is that whoever Mrs. Meir designates as her heir apparent will have the Inside track in gaining leadership of the party.