The controversy over Education Minister Shulamit Aloni, whose secular perspective raises the hackles of the religious parties, has escalated into the first full-fledged coalition crisis of Yitzhak Rabin’s new government.
The prime minister met with Aloni in Tel Aviv on Sunday as the Shas party warned it would pull out of the government if she remained in the education post.
The fervently Orthodox Sephardic party is threatening to vote against the government in no-confidence motions on the Aloni issue, submitted to the Knesset by opposition religious parties.
Aloni’s colleagues at the helm of the left-wing Meretz bloc said they would rather quit the government than allow their leader to be compromised by being forced out of her post.
In an effort to ease the crisis and shore up his majority, Rabin was involved in intensive contacts with two parties on the right, seeking to woo one or both of them into the government.
To Rafael Eitan, leader of the right-wing Tsomet party, the prime minister sent a written proposal on the basis of which he hopes to resume negotiations broken off when the government coalition of Labor, Meretz and Shas was sworn in last July.
According to officials in the Prime Minister’s Office, the paper represents no new development in the premier’s policy thinking.
But they would neither confirm nor deny media reports that Rabin had expressed willingness to hold a referendum before any territorial deal on the Golan Heights. Tsomet opposes territorial concessions.
According to media speculation, Eitan is being offered the Police Ministry, currently headed by Communications Minister Moshe Shahal of Labor, and an economic ministry – possibly the Ministry of Labor and Welfare, currently held by the premier himself in anticipation of coalition changes.
The prior “tenant” at Labor and Welfare was the Agudat Yisrael party, now part of the United Torah Judaism bloc. Rabin would presumably be happy to see a United Torah man return to this post. A meeting between the premier and the party’s Knesset members last week was inconclusive, with both sides insisting it had not focused on coalition politics.
An obstacle to United Torah joining the coalition is the presence of Aloni at Education. Sources in the haredi, or fervently Orthodox, community say the rabbis of the Agudah Council of Sages would not contemplate entering the government unless Aloni were shifted out of that slot, and perhaps not even then.
And the leader of United Torah’s other component, Degel HaTorah sage Rabbi Eliezer Shach, is said to be opposed to joining the present government on any terms as long as Meretz is a part of it.
Observers question, however, whether Shach can call the shots in United Torah, given that only one of its four Knesset members, Avraham Ravitz, is a Degel man. The other three are Agudah politicians.
Meanwhile, the key figure around whom the crisis swirls is Shas’ spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. Yosef is scheduled to chair a session of the Shas Council of Sages after the Sukkot holiday ends, at which the party’s final position regarding the coalition and the upcoming confidence votes will be determined.
The motions of no confidence, submitted by the National Religious Party and United Torah Judaism, are to be heard when the parliamentary winter term starts at the end of the month. They criticize controversial statements by Aloni on religious issues.
Sources close to Yosef, quoted Sunday by the Israeli daily Ha’aretz, say he is loath to leave the government, whose positions on the peace process he strongly supports.
But Shas Knesset members claim they are coming under increasing pressure from the rank and file over Aloni’s statements.
Tsomet and United Torah are also expected to decide soon on whether or not to join the coalition.
For its part, the opposition Likud bloc has urged Tsomet to reject Rabin’s overtures. In a statement, it reminded Eitan and his supporters that they oppose territorial concessions while the Rabin government is committed to offering such concessions.
“Tsomet’s place is with the demonstrators against the government’s policy, “the Likud statement said.
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