The Labor Party leadership said Tuesday that there was “no further basis for negotiations” with Likud for the creation of a broad-based coalition government.
Likud had no comment, but some observers believe that despite the apparent finality of Labor’s official statement, efforts to establish a new Labor-Likud partnership have not yet been exhausted.
They believe it hinges on Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s ongoing bargaining with the ultra-Orthodox and extreme right-wing factions.
The fierce opposition of Diaspora Jewry to the proposed “Who Is a Jew” legislation may yet be the decisive factor, observers say.
But there are strong factions within the Labor Party absolutely opposed to another alliance with Likud, even if it means being out of power.
They feel that now Labor need not make “dishonorable concessions and compromises,” but can wage an honorable fight against the rightist-religious government from the opposition side of the Knesset.
Haim Bar-Lev, a Labor member of the outgoing Cabinet, said the talks are over for good, “unless Shamir decides he really wants us in.”
Bar-Lev, who is police minister, and his colleague, Energy Minister Moshe Shahal, had been conducting the talks with Shamir’s lieutenants, Moshe Arens and Dan Meridor.
According to reliable sources, the talks foundered on Labor’s insistence on both the Treasury and the Foreign Ministry portfolios in the new Cabinet and on having parity in the Inner Cabinet, the government’s top policy-making body.
The two sides reportedly had reached agreement on policy guidelines, similar to those that governed the Labor-Likud unity government formed in 1984.
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