See New Elections for Israel As Parties Reject Ben-zvi Compromise

New general elections to solve Israel’s current Government crisis became inevitable today when three of the parties of the outgoing coalition formally rejected President Ben-Zvi’s proposal that the coalition be reconstituted without change.

In a last-ditch effort to avert elections, the President called in all party leaders last Friday to make the proposal. He coupled this with a suggestion that the controversy over Pinhas Lavon, the ousted Secretary General of the Histadrut, be ended with acceptance of a December 25 ministerial committee report which cleared Mr. Lavon, as Defense Minister in 1954, for responsibility for a security disaster that year. Mr, Ben-Gurion resigned as Prime Minister January 31 in protest against that report.

The President’s proposals were directed to the Progressive party, the Mapam and Achdut A’vodah. The Progressives, in their reply today, blamed Mr. Ben-Gurion for the crisis and said there was no possibility that the party would change an earlier decision against serving again under Mr. Ben-Gurion.

Mapam and Achdut Avodah reitereated their stand that they were willing to resume coalition partnership with Mr. Ben-Gurion’s Mapai provided Mr, Ben-Gurion was not Prime Minister.

Akiva Gorin and Meir Argov of Mapai called on Mr. Ben-Zvi today to report that the party could see no alternative to general elections. They said the party had tried to maintain the prior coalition and that when this proved unattainable, the party had sought to form a “narrow” coalition with the National Religious party. This effort also had failed. Unwilling to accept “dictation” from other parties that Mr. Ben-Gurion be replaced as Premier-designate by another Mapai leader, they said, the party was now supporting new elections.

Since it had been indicated that the President did not plan any further move to resolve the crisis by negotiation before Sunday, surprise was expressed that Mapai had hastened to be the first to reject Mr. Ben-Zvi’s negotiation efforts. There was speculation that the Mapai move was aimed at preventing pressure, either external or internal, from building up for the appointment of Finance Minister Levi Eskil or former Prime Minister Moshe Sharett as Mapai candidate for the premiership. Meanwhile, several developments within Mapai pointed toward a crystallization of opposition to Mr. Ben-Gurion as the sole Mapai candidate for the premiership.

The internal opposition came mainly from supporters of Mr. Lavon who took two parallel actions. One was the convening of an informal meeting of pro-Lavon party functionaries to discuss means to “renovate the face of the party.” There was some indication that this group would organize a more or less permanently.

The second move was the launching of a campaign to collect the signatures needed to convene a special session of the central committee where the group, it was reported, would challenge the decision of the Mapai party secretariat of either Ben-Gurion as Prime Minister or elections.

The Prime Minister meanwhile interrupted his vacation today by resuming his functions as Prime Minister and Defense Minister. However, he continued his refusal to preside at weekly meetings of the Cabinet.

All parties, except Mapai, began negotiations on a date for the now virtually certain elections. The consensus emerging from these talks pointed toward August as the proposed election date. The Mapai party would prefer an October or November date.