Modai Resigns One Portfolio

— Yitzhak Modai announced today that he has resigned as Minister of Communications but will retain his Cabinet seat as Minister of Energy. Premier Menachem Begin informed the Cabinet at its weekly meeting today that he has received Madai’s letter of resignation which takes effect 48 hours after delivery.

Modai’s relinquishment of one of the two portfolios he holds in the Begin government came as a surprise. There was no immediate explanation for his move. But sources close to him suggested that he acted out of frustration over the Treasury’s efforts to block his plan to transfer telephone and postal services to a government-owned company, thereby removing them from bureaucratic control. The minister, a member of Likud’s Liberal Party wing, has long contended that company status would improve Israel’s notoriously inefficient postal and telephone systems.

Political observers said Modai also may have been motivated by a desire to shed his “bad guy” image. As Minister of energy and of communications, it fell to him to make unpopular announcements of fuel price rises and increases in postal and telephone rates. He is also said to have commented privately that some ministers bear the brunt of unpopular policies while others not responsible for consumer-oriented ministries, escape the abuse of inflation-linked price bikes every few months.

Modai’s departure from the Communications Ministry may provide Begin with on opportunity to bolster his shaky coalition government by offering the portfolio to Shlomo Eliahu, leader of the new Avha faction, a spin-off from the defunct Democratic Movement for Change.