Negotiations for Broadening the Israel Cabinet Resumed; Compromise Sought

A new burst of activity among Israel’s political parties developed today in a renewal of pressures for a broad Cabinet of national unity.

The renewed talks included not only the National Religious Party, which strongly favored such a Cabinet, in Israel’s deepening crisis, but also sections of Premier Levi Eshkol’s Mapai Party in major centers. The three religious parties — the National Religious Party, Agudat Israel and Poalei Agudat Israel — decided to unite into a single religious bloc and called on the Premier to make every effort to broaden the present coalition government.

However, there was strong opposition to such a plan in the leftist Mapam, a member of the coalition and several leading personalities in Mapai. Although Mapam came under sharp criticism from newspapers editorially today for opposing a wider Cabinet, one of the strongest sources of opposition was Mrs. Golda Meir, Mapai secretary-general. Opposing Mrs. Meir was Abba Khoushy, Mayor of Haifa, who had a meeting with Premier Eshkol in an effort to persuade the Premier to start a unity Cabinet by offering Moshe Dayan the post of Defense Minister. Gen. Dayan is one of the leaders of the National Workers Party (Rafi) formed by former Premier David Ben-Gurion as an opposition party.

Another proposal called for Gen. Dayan to become Defense Minister and Yigal Allon, the present Labor Minister, to be named Deputy Premier. The Premier was reported reluctant about handing over the Defense Ministry to another man because he felt this could be regarded as indicating a lack of confidence in his capacity to handle the ministry. The Prime Minister has always held the Defense Ministry.

The Mapai central committee scheduled a meeting tonight to discuss the issue. Premier Eshkol was known to favor the idea of a special advisory committee on security affairs with membership for former Chief of Staffs Yigal Yadin, Dayan, Haim Laskov and Allon, Prof. Yadin said he would take any post offered him. It was disclosed that Premier Eshkol had already met with Gen. Yadin on the matter.