President Izbak Ben-Zvi began today what apparently will be a long drawn-out and difficult process of obtaining a new Prime Minister and Cabinet to replace the Ben-Gurion coalition government which fell last week as a result of the Lavon Affair.
The President’s first step was to receive a delegation representing the Mapai party’s Knesset membership. The delegation, it was understood, urged the President to call on Mr. Ben-Gurion to form a new government.
Mr. Ben-Gurion, it was reported tonight, was prepared to undertake the assignment provided that he could set up more or less the same coalition he headed in the last government. However, he was known to face serious difficulties in this, both from his erstwhile partners and from within his own party.
Three of the coalition partners, the Mapam party, the Achdut Avodah and the Progressive party, indicate a reluctance to serve again under Mr. Ben-Gurion. They took the position that Mr. Ben-Gurion, in his formal letter of resignation, actually reverted to the criticism and disparagement of his colleagues which had precipitated a Cabinet crisis. Mr. Ben-Gurion had subsequently apologized for these statements when members of his Cabinet threatened to resign, and his apology had been accepted by them.
A decision to boycott a new Ben-Gurion government was reached by the Mapam party leadership last night. Although the decision was subject to formal ratification by the party’s executive committee, the Mapam leaders began immediate discussions with the Achdut Avodah and the Progressives, urging on them a similar stand.
The Mapam leaders were spurred by-two developments–the Mapai party move to force Pinhas Lavon’s resignation as secretary-general of the Histadrut, the Israel Federation of Labor, and the repetition by Mr.Ben-Gurion in his letter of resignation of the criticisms he had previously voiced of his colleagues’ position in the Lavon Affair.
The National Religious party, another member of the outgoing coalition, was said to be reluctant to enter a new coalition unless it included the moderate Progressive party. The General Zionist party, which was in the opposition, was described as opposed to entering a new government and firm in its demand that new elections be held.
GOLDA MEIR RELUCTANT TO SERVE IN NEW BEN-GURION CABINET
Mr. Ben-Gurion also faced towering obstacles in the ranks of his own party. Foreign Minister Golda Meir and Minister of Commerce and Industry Pinhas Sapir indicated that they would not enter a new Ben-Gurion government. Mrs. Meir officially went on two weeks’ leave today but was likely to prolong her absence until after the formation of a new government. Both she and Mr. Sapir were under strong pressure from Mapai elements to agree to serve in a new cabinet.
Mr. Ben-Gurion appeared to be facing great difficulties from a grouping of labor veterans and the farm bloc within the Mapai party. They were impressed by the fact that in the showdown between Ben-Gurion and Lavon in the Mapai Central Committee last weekend, some 40 percent of the committee supported Lavon. They were described today as taking the position that if heads were to roll, Lavon’s would not roll alone.
One of the demands this bloc was said to be pressing was for the abolition of the post of Deputy Defense Minister, now held by Shimon Peres, who was Lavon’s chief adversary in the bitter fight over culpability for the 1954 security mishap when Lavon was Minister of Defense and Peres, director-general of the Ministry.
The bloc also sought the removal of Yosef Almogi, the secretary-general of the party, on the grounds that his failure to show sufficient flexibility had permitted the Lavon issue to develop into an open struggle.
The veterans–farmers bloc held that the dismissal of these two men, both trusted lieutenants of-Ben-Gurion, would, to a certain extent, offset the effect created in the public mind by Ben-Gurion’s attitude towards Lavon, even though both would certainly receive new and probably more important posts.
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