An angry Knesset debate over the European Community’s refusal to ratify its new trade agreements with Israel turned into a verbal brawl between Labor Party and Likud members Wednesday that came close to an exchange of blows.
Likud and other right-wing Knesset members blamed the Laborites for everything from Israel’s troubles in Europe to the stalled peace process and the unrest in the administered territories.
Their main targets were Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, the Labor Party leader, and his colleague, Abba Eban, chairman of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. They apparently took their cue from Likud Herut hardliner Ariel Sharon, the minister of commerce and industry, who has verbally savaged both men in recent days.
Eban in particular raised the hackles of Likud for going to the United States at the same time Premier Yitzhak Shamir, the Likud leader, is in Washington voicing his opposition to the new American peace initiative.
Uzi Landau of Likud introduced a motion to condemn “Labor’s attempts to create American pressure on the prime minister during his visit to the U.S.” Peres retorted by denouncing right-wing slurs on his peace policy and his staff as the “slander brigade.”
Aharon Nahmias of the Labor Party shouted across the chamber to Landau, “You are a master of vilification, of slander,” and Peres added for good measure, “You are dust beneath Eban’s feet.”
Likud’s David Magen countered by saying, “It seems that the foreign minister is rattled.” The foreign minister, in turn, reminded Likud of the fiasco of its 1982 war in Lebanon, where 650 Israeli soldiers were killed and 4,000 wounded, according to Peres, without achieving a single objective.
‘LEADING THE NATION ASTRAY’
Likud party whip Yehoshua Matza accused Peres of “leading the nation astray with fakery. You are dissension within the nation,” he said.
Yossi Sarid of the left-leaning Citizens Rights Movement, called out to the Likud benches, “What dreadful rabble you are.”
Despite the din, Peres upheld his policy of trading land for peace, a formula greeted by shouts of derision from Likud. Israel must have peace, must refrain from ruling 1.5 million Arabs and must speak out clearly, the foreign minister said, a reference to the divided Labor-Likud coalition government, which remains deadlocked over the peace process and unable to make any decisions.
During the verbal slugfest, members of both parties mounted their seats or stepped into the aisles and approached one another with raised fists.
Order was restored only when Knesset Speaker Shlomo Hillel of Labor, who had left the chamber for awhile, returned and took over from Deputy Speaker Dan Tichon of Likud.
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