Likud Knesset members sharply attacked Labor Cabinet ministers Monday for what they believed to be inflammatory political statements, amid renewed speculation for that Labor might try to form an alternative coalition with the religious parties.
Two Labor ministers were specifically singled out for acrimony during a meeting of the Likud Knesset caucus: Energy Minister Moshe Shahal and Communications Minister Gad Ya’acobi.
Last week, Shahal presented his own proposals for a settlement with the Palestinians, while Ya’acobi published his own estimates of the economic costs of the Palestinian uprising.
The Likud Executive demanded that Labor ministers limit themselves to dealing solely with the affairs of their respective ministries and to put an end to “irresponsible political declarations which cause damage to the state,” as Sara Doron, Likud caucus whip, put it.
The caucus urged Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir to call the Laborites to order, because their behavior would cause disrespect for the Knesset and the government.
The attack was an indication that despite Likud’s dominance of the present national unity government, there are fears within the party of the kinds of dual-track diplomacy that characterized the previous coalition government.
Vice Premier Shimon Peres, for instance, recently said that if Shamir and Foreign Minister Moshe Arens failed to achieve progress in their talks in Washington, Labor would come up with plans of its own.
According to Yediot Achronot on Monday, the Likud has further reason to be suspicious of Labor.
The paper’s reliable political reporter, Shlomo Nakdimon, wrote that Rabbi Yaacov Arye Alter, the son of the Ger rebbe, left Sunday on a secret mission to New York’s Lubavitcher rebbe following negotiations between Labor, the Agudat Yisrael party and Lubavitch leaders in Israel.
The purpose of the mission, according to Nakdimon, was to work out a new version of the controversial “Who Is a Jew” amendment, which would allow Labor to stage a “parliamentary coup” and form a new ruling coalition.
Religious leaders are still bitter that Likud backed out on promises to pass the amendment to the Law of Return.
If the Lubavitcher rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, agrees to a new proposal, wrote Yediot, other religious parties might follow suit and create a dynamic that could shake up the government.
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