Efforts to bring about better understanding between the “young” leaders of the Mapai, Israel’s Government Party, and the older leadership were made here today following the submission by Gen. Moshe Dayan this weekend of his resignation from the Mapai Central Bureau which directs the party’s policy.
Members of the “Young Mapai” group, which is a minority in the Central Bureau, indicated last night that a number of others holding key positions in Mapai would be called upon to resign if the views of the younger leaders in Mapai continued to be ignored. Today, Mapai’s Secretary General Reuven Barka met with Gen. Dayan in an attempt to persuade him to withdraw his resignation, prior to his leaving for a three week vacation.
The “Young Mapai” group is said to have the support of Development Minister Yosef Almogi and the Haifa Mapai organization headed by Mayor Abba Khoushy. The group claims that they are being constantly “majorized” by the elder leaders of the party and their recommendations have no chances of being accepted. The Mapai Central Bureau’s membership consists of seven leaders: Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, Aharon Becker, Secretary General of the Histadrut, Abba Khoushi, Reuven Barkat, Israel Yeshayahu, Shraga Netzer and Gen. Dayan.
Reports in the press here that Gen. Dayan intends to resign also from his post of Minister of Agriculture were discounted today, despite the fact that a brief meeting between him and Prime Minister Levi Eshkol to discuss his future functions in the new Cabinet was believed to be inconclusive.
The new Cabinet under Prime Minister Levi Eshkol today reappointed four deputy ministers to the same posts they held under Premier David Ben-Gurion. They are: Shimon Peres, Deputy Minister of Defense; Rabbi Kalman Kahane, Deputy Minister of Education; Yitzhak Rafael, Deputy Minister of Health; and I. S. Ben Meir, Deputy Minister of Interior.
Yitzhak Korn was not reappointed as Deputy Finance Minister, and the place of the second Deputy Minister of Education vacated by the death of Ami Assaf has not been filled. Pinhas Sapir Minister of Finance and of Commerce and Industry, was named to head the Ministerial Economic Committee in place of Mr. Eshkol, who held the post under Premier Ben-Gurion. Most of the other Cabinet committees retained the same composition as in the previous Cabinet.
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