Labor and Likud apparently have agreed on a face-saving formula to preserve their unity coalition government which appeared on the brink of collapse after Premier Shimon Peres announced Tuesday night that he intends to dismiss Finance Minister Yitzhak Modai, a Likud Liberal.
Peres is reported amenable to the plan which was being debated by the Likud leadership Thursday night. It calls for Modai and Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir to switch portfolios. Shamir would become Finance Minister, satisfying Peres’ stated determination to remove Modai from the Treasury.
Modai would take over the Foreign Ministry, but only until the rotation of power next October 13 when Peres is required by the coalition agreement to switch jobs with Shamir. When the latter becomes Prime Minister, Modai would return to the Treasury.
SOME OPPOSITION TO PLAN
There was some heated opposition to the plan in Likud circles, notably from Minister of Housing David Levy who aspires to Shamir’s position as leader of the Herut faction of Likud. But Shamir made it clear that he supports the compromise and a majority of the Likud ministers are expected to agree. The Cabinet reshuffle would take place this Sunday, the day Peres said he would fire Modai.
His anger at Modai was kindled by interviews with the Finance Minister published last weekend which quoted Modai as saying Peres was a “flighty” Premier who knew little about economics and deserved no credit for the successes so far of the government’s economic austerity program. Peres called those remarks a deliberate, premeditated attack on the government and declared he would remove Modai.
LIKUD LEADERS RELIEVED
If he did, he would be acting in violation of the coalition agreement that the Prime Minister of one party cannot dismiss a minister of the other. Likud responded to Peres with an outpouring of support for Modai saying that if he went the entire Likud ministerial delegation would go with him.
But most observers believe the Likud leadership was relieved when Modai announced Wednesday that he would resign for “the good of the nation” if the Premier so desires. His offer to quit opened the way for Labor and Likud to seek a formula to preserve the government.
If it were to topple because of a feud between the Premier and the Finance Minister, Peres would be open to the charge that he deliberately precipitated a coalition crisis in order to forestall the rotation of power due in six months. Peres has stated repeatedly that he intends to implement the rotation.
GOVERNMENT FACING NON CONFIDENCE MOTION
At the Labor Party convention now in its final day in Tel Aviv, the Premier came under strong pressure to abrogate the coalition agreement. Former Labor MK Michael Bar-Zohar introduced a motion to that effect but it was opposed by Peres and most of the Party leadership.
The government meanwhile is facing a non-confidence motion in the Knesset introduced by the rightwing opposition Tehiya Party. It is seeking to bring down the government because of Peres’ statement, in his opening speech at the Labor Party convention Tuesday night that he regards the Palestinians as a nation.
The motion is considered to have little chance. Peres’ aides have dismissed it, noting that Israel recognized the Palestinians’ peoplehood in the Camp David accords, signed by Premier Menachem Begin in 1978, which spoke of the “legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.”
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