Widespread Public Dissatisfaction with Maneuvering of Labor Party

Premier Golda Meir delivered her new government to the Knesset today amid widespread public dissatisfaction with the Labor Party’s maneuvering of the past week that saw Mrs. Meir and two of her key ministers–Moshe Dayan and Shimon Peres–abruptly reverse what they had claimed to be irrevocable decisions to resign. Their popularity and credibility is at its lowest ebb and there is considerable public disenchantment with the fact after months of tortuous coalition negotiations, Israel’s new government is virtually the same as the old.

All of this has been grist for the Likud mills, and the opposition leaders lost no time in flaying the Labor leadership–particularly Dayan for suddenly dropping his advocacy of a national unity government on alleged security grounds.

Gen. Ariel Sharon, the Likud founder and a popular hero of the Yom Kippur War, accused Dayan of exploiting the situation on the Syrian front which, Sharon claimed, was no worse than others that have arisen since the Yom Kippur War and which he said will continue “every time we cannot satisfy the Arab demands.” Menachem Beigin claimed on a television interview that if Dayan and Peres had held out for a unity government it would have come about.

But the predictable “thunder from the right” was not all today. Weekend newspapers carried dozens of articles equally critical of Meir and Dayan and accusing them of exploiting the Syrian scare for political purposes. Haim Heffer, a pro-Labor poet wrote today in Yediot Achronot that the man-in-the-street has lost all trust and confidence in the country’s political leadership. Sylvia Keshet, a columnist in the same newspaper, charged Mrs. Meir with cynical deception and claimed that under her leadership the Labor Party was severely weakened. Similar opinions were expressed in the independent press and, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learned, at informal social gatherings of influential people.

BEIGIN CARRIES BATTLE TO THE KNESSET

Beigin carried the battle to the Knesset today where he led off a 10-hour debate on the new government by charging that the Labor Party’s coalition maneuverings brought “public shame and disgrace” to Israel. Referring sarcastically to Mrs. Meir’s “final” decision to step down, Beigin declared that the world obviously did not know the Hebrew meaning of “final.” “You have made the word of Israel’s Prime Minister a mockery and source of laughter,” Beigin shouted looking straight at Mrs. Meir who appeared uncomfortable.

Turning to Dayan, the Likud leader said that for weeks the Defense Minister adamantly refused the advice of his colleagues to withdraw his decision to quit. But “one night he suddenly did a somersault. What happened?” Beigin asked rhetorically, and answered himself: “A defense scandal unprecedented in the annals of the State.”

He was referring to last week’s top secret Cabinet meeting on the Syrian situation which, he charged, was made public only in order to let Dayan change his mind without losing face. “Golda who always complained of leaks from Cabinet meetings, published this top secret information herself for political purposes,” Beigin claimed. According to Beigin, she there by compromised Israel’s intelligence sources in Syria. “And we know what happens to compromised intelligence sources in Syria,” he said.

Beigin also denounced the National Religious Party for agreeing to compromise on the Who is a Jew issue and for retreating from its position in support of a national unity government. He challenged Mrs. Meir’s contention that a government with Likud could never bring peace with the Arabs. If Labor claims it will never give up the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip or Sharm el-Sheikh, how does it propose to make peace? Beigin asked. (By David Landau)