Labor Party Subdued; Likud Happy with Results of Election Returns

The significance of the first election returns was reflected today in the moods that prevailed at the headquarters of the two major contestants–Labor and Likud. The atmosphere at Labor headquarters was subdued. But Premier Golda Meir and her ranking ministers who watched the returns on television were apparently braced for their party’s losses–although the dropping of six Knesset seats was clearly more than they would have liked–and confident that they could still form a viable coalition government.

At Likud headquarters, the feeling was generally one of satisfaction but hardly a victory atmosphere. Likud appeared to have picked up seven seats and may have as many as 40 in the next Knesset–a formidable opposition but not enough to end 25 years of Labor rule.

Mrs. Meir who sat through the returns chain smoking and expressionless, was visibly irritated when Avraham Offer, head of the Labor Alignment’s Knesset faction, told a television interviewer that the results so far were so indecisive that a new election may be called for. “Who told him to say that?” the Premier shouted. Later, on her instructions, Labor Party Secretary General Aharon Yadlin appeared on television to declare that Labor regarded the election results as a clear mandate from the public to establish a new government based on the party’s platform. “We shall do everything we can to come to terms with our partners” in the previous coalition, he said, a reference to the National Religious Party and the Independent Liberals.

NO HISTORIC CHANGE SEEN

Yadlin insisted that the election results represented no historic change. “Even if Likud wins 40 seats in the Knesset, it would still have only one-third,” he said. He admitted that Labor’s strength declined but said that had been expected, and declared, “There is a sound basis for setting up a stable government and no need for new elections.” He said his party’s task was to establish a new Cabinet under Premier Meir as quickly as possible. The Labor Party leadership was clearly unhappy, however, over its upset defeat in the Tel Aviv municipal elections which placed the continued rule of Mayor Yehoshua Rabinowitz in doubt.

Likud leaders were buoyed by their substantial gains despite being branded the “war party” by their opponents. According to Menachem Beigin, leader of Likud’s Herut wing, the election results denied a mandate to those who he said would “repartition” Israel. “There is a clear majority for those who wish to retain our rights in the western part of Palestine” (West Bank) he said.

He referred to 38-40 Likud seats plus “17 religious party seats in addition to Laborites opposed to returning the Judaea-Samaria region to the Arabs.” But Beigin was obviously overestimating the strength of the “no return” faction. The NRP will have no more than 12 seats and the Aguda bloc, which appears to have lost one of its six seats, is not bound, as is the NRP, to the “Greater Israel” borders.

Beigin added, and probably correctly, that with her margin in the Knesset reduced from 56 to 50 seats. Premier Meir would not dare to seek Rakah Communist support for reduced borders. Elimelech Rimalt and Shmuel Tamir, leaders of Likud’s Liberal and Free Center factions, respectively, observed that while halving the Knesset gap between Labor and Likud was a great achievement, it fell short of a Likud victory. (Yitzhak Shargil).