Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and his most outspoken rival, Ariel Sharon, are trading barbs in anticipation of an upcoming Likud Central Committee meeting.
The committee’s 2,000-plus members will convene Feb. 7 for what Shamir hopes will be a vote of confidence in his peace initiative toward the Palestinians. He and Sharon set the date at a private meeting last week.
But Sharon, who is minister of industry and trade, clearly wants a showdown over Shamir’s proposal for Palestinian elections in the administered territories and his diplomatic moves with the United States to set them up.
Addressing about 100 party loyalists Monday night, Sharon claimed the erosion of Likud’s electoral base in recent years was the result of unclear policies that made it hard for the public to distinguish Likud from the Labor Party.
He said he feared that in future elections the voters would have to choose “between Labor and a facsimile of Labor.”
Sharon was reacting to Shamir’s remarks to a Likud audience the day before. “Be silent, detractors,” the prime minister urged in a passionate call for party unity.
“Whom is he telling to be silent?” asked Sharon in reply.
Israelis are well aware the prime minister was referring to Sharon and his two most powerful allies in the upper echelons of Likud: Construction and Housing Minister David Levy and Yitzhak Moda’i, the minister of economics and planning.
The three have put aside their personal rivalries to oppose Shamir’s initiative, especially the proposed Palestinian elections, which they warn will lead to a Palestinian state.
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