Moshe Arens, and his patron, Premier Yitzhak Shamir, did better in Herut’s internal elections Wednesday than Arens’ relegation to the No. 3 spot on the party’s election slate might indicate, according to political pundits.
Shamir automatically heads the list as candidate for the office of prime minister. Arens, his closest political associate, ran third, after David Levy, who placed first, and Ariel Sharon, who was second.
But the Shamir-Arens camp recouped as the 2,000-plus member Herut Central Committee arranged the party’s 35 Knesset candidates in the order they will appear on the ballot on election day, next Nov.1.
Shamir-Arens supporters, it turns out, will constitute the largest grouping within the Herut Knesset faction. Herut is the main component of the Likud bloc, which also includes the Liberal Party.
The Central Committee divided the candidates into three groups of seven. Of the first 21 on the list — not including Shamir — 10 belong to the Shamir-Arens camp or lean toward it. The others are split between Levy and Sharon, or are uncommitted.
Arens is a minister without portfolio in the present government. Sharon is minister of commerce and industry. Both are former defense ministers. Levy is minister of housing and also holds the rank of deputy premier.
All three have made no secret of their ambition to succeed Shamir as party leader and eventually prime minister.
For the time being, Sharon seems to hold the balance of power between Arens and Levy, who are actively hostile to each other.
It is open to question whether that will significantly enhance his prospects of inheriting Shamir’s mantle in 1992, when the term of the next Knesset ends.
TWO YOUNG MEN PROMOTED
Many observers said Thursday that the camp loyalties themselves within Herut will break down when the Central Committee is eventually called on to select a new prime ministerial candidate.
People who were pleased to see Levy unchallenged in the top slot, just below Shamir, may have second thoughts about voting for him as party leader, the person who must be able to win the support of uncommitted voters, the observers said.
The Herut elections brought two relatively young men with internationally known names close to the top of the party’s hierarchy. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s former representative to the United Nations, placed fifth on the election list — if Shamir is not counted. Eighth place went to Binyamin Zeev Begin, son of former Premier Menachem Begin.
Netanyahu was a career diplomat. Begin is a geologist. Neither of them has ever held elective office.
The biggest setback in Wednesday night’s elections was suffered by Haim Kaufman, chairman of the Herut faction in the present Knesset. He failed to get on any of the groups of seven.
Considering the spots that must be held open for Likud’s Liberal Party component, Kaufman will find himself in the mid-40s on the ballot, far from assured of election to the next Knesset, under Israel’s proportional representation system.
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