Major Obstacles to Coalition Government Remain Unsolved

The two major obstacles to the establishment of a new coalition government–the National Religious Party’s demands for a broad-based national unity government including Likud and the bitter controversy over the “Who is a Jew?” issue–remained unsolved today as talks continued between the various factions. But solutions appeared in the offing that would shelve the religious issue until after a new government is established and would give the NRP leadership the appearance of having done all they could to bring about an all-party coalition.

Labor Alignment leaders are known to have warned both the NRP and the Independent Liberals that new elections may have to be called unless they modified their demands. It was made clear to the NRP that there is no chance that Labor will accede to Orthodox demands on the “Who is a Jew?” issue. Nor will it grant freedom of conscience vote rights to coalition members on questions of state and religion, the ILP was informed. In informal talks, Labor leaders have intimated that a second round of elections cannot be excluded if efforts to form a coalition continue to lag.

They seem to hold the view that the successful disengagement agreement with Egypt and the demobilization of reserve soldiers would restore to Labor the Knesset seats it lost in the Dec. 31 elections and possibly a few more should new elections be held. Other circles doubt this and predict even further Labor losses if new elections were held. They say the Labor leadership knows it and is using the threat of new elections as a club to bring their old coalition partners into line. But political observers are inclined to the view that a new round of elections, while still a remote possibility, should not be excluded.

Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir, who is directing the Labor Alignment’s coalition talks expressed hope today that a new Cabinet will be formed within 21 days. Sapir asked the special working committees assigned the task of ironing out inter-party differences to complete their work next week. The talks are going on between Labor and the NRP on one hand and Labor and the Independent Liberal-Civil Rights bloc on the other. It was the latter that agreed more than a week ago to join a Labor-led coalition if the “Who is a Jew?” question is set aside for several months so that a new government can take up more urgent political issues. The NRP leaders balked on grounds that this would be tantamount to planting a “time bomb” in the new government. But it appeared possible today that NRP leader Dr. Yosef Burg and Haim Zadok, a Labor Alignment MK, will go to the U.S. shortly to sound out the views of the various religious trends there and try to reach a consensus.

The NRP leadership is also being pressed by its “young guard” not to back down on its demand for a broad coalition with Likud, something Labor has so far categorically rejected. It appeared today, however, that the NRP will insist only that the Labor Alignment meet with the Likud people to discuss the formation of a national regime. That solution emerged after a meeting between Likud leaders Menachem Beigin and Elimelech Rimalt and NRP leaders Zerach Warhaftig, Itzhak Rafael and party secretary Tzvi Bernstein. The Likud leaders reportedly stated that they were prepared to join a coalition on the basis of the outgoing government’s platform or no platform at all. A similar attitude was adopted by the NRP. “We shall not give up our principles but we are ready to accept and seek roads that will enable us to sit together,” the Likud leaders said. It appeared that the NRP will now take a stronger line in support of a wide coalition. If the Labor and Likud leaders meet but fail to reach an agreement, the NRP leadership could tell its constituents that they tried their best.