Efforts to bring the National Religious Party in Premier Yitzhak Rabin’s coalition government floundered last night when leaders of the Labor Alignment decided to avoid a split within their ranks over the compromise on the Who is a Jew question worked out by Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren. The members of the Alignment Knesset faction, the Labor Party Bureau and the Mapam Center approved a resolution proposed by Rabin that the issue “was not ripe for decision.”
NRP leader Dr. Yitzhak Raphael angered by the decision said today that it terminates the unofficial contacts between the NRP and the Labor Party over the possibility of NRP returning to the coalition. From now on, Raphael declared, the NRP would act as a clear opposition party.
Other NRP leaders did not disguise their disappointment at the Alignment’s resolution. Some accused Alignment leaders of having created the illusion that they had a majority in favor of a compromise on the “Who is a Jew” controversy. The formula worked out by Rabbi Goren would have defined conversion as that “practiced and accepted among the Jewish people from generation to generation.”
The Alignment decision came after its leaders saw that approving the formula to gain the 10 NRP votes would cause a major split in the government. The formula was opposed by the Alignment’s coalition partners, the Independent Liberal Party and the Civil Rights Party. It was also criticized by a member of the coalition, Mapam, and there was strong opposition within the ranks of Labor as well.
The differences were apparent at the meeting last night. When Haim Zadok, Justice and Religious Affairs Minister, suggested setting up a negotiations committee to meet with the NRP, Mapam leaders Meir Talmi and Yaacov Hazan insisted that representatives of the ILP and CRP be named to the committee. After a short debate Rabin made his suggestion that no decision be taken. This was overwhelmingly approved.
Prospects now are for the Alignment to try to maintain the present coalition while the Knesset takes its summer recess. This will give the parties two months to reconsider the issue.
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