A Mapam leader hinted last night that Mapam would withdraw from the Labor Alignment before it became a party to any broad-based national coalition government that included Likud. That warning was voiced by Mapam’s secretary general Meir Talmi, addressing a meeting of the executive committee of Hakibbutz Haartzi, the kibbutz movement of the Mapam-sponsored Hashomer Hatzair.
The meeting, held at Givat Haviva, was also told by Kibbutz Haartzi secretary Shimon Avidan that the only enemy he could see was the right wing and that its growth must be checked. He urged intensive ideological efforts and cooperation between the kibbutz movements to achieve their Socialist-Zionist goals.
Talmi, discussing the difficulties Labor is experiencing in establishing a new coalition government, sharply criticized Transport Minister Shimon Peres who said in an interview last week that he would prefer a national coalition to new elections. Such a suggestion cannot materialize in partnership with Mapam, Talmi said. He claimed that an emergency national government with Likud would be an obstacle to peace. He said that Mapam would not intervene in the Labor Party’s internal struggles but “we shall not give our hand to such a government only because of the internal problems of Labor.”
Talmi said Labor’s troubles stemmed from its handling of economic and political affairs and charged that there was mounting public impatience with the lagging work of the committee investigating the Yom Kippur War. He also criticized the National Religious Party for its unbending attitude on the “Who is a Jew?” issue and said he hoped the NRP would recognize ultimately the overriding need to create a new coalition based on its former partners.
During the session, Menahem Rosener, a member of Kibbutz Reshafim who lost a son in the Yom Kippur War, asked the executive to support the demonstration for the resignation of Defense Minister Moshe Dayan presently being conducted in Jerusalem by Capt. Mordechai Ashkenazi, a Yom Kippur War veteran. (See separate story.)
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