Yaad Group Disintegrates

The Yaad Knesset faction, formed seven months ago as a coalition of four left-of-center splinter groups, disintegrated today as the result of the latest in a series of internal crises that have plagued it from the start. The coup de grace was delivered by Yaad chairman Shulamit Aloni who declared the articles of coalition null and void as a result of a dispute over the government’s policy on dealing with the Palestinian issue.

Ms. Aloni, a former Cabinet Minister was joined by former Labor Party Secretary General Arye Eliav early this year to form Yaad which held four seats in the Knesset. Other components were Lashinoy, a group of liberal academicians and Le Shiloov, made up of former Labor Party intellectuals. From the outset, ideological and personal differences prevented Yaad from functioning effectively as an opposition force in parliament.

Recently Eliav, joined by Res, Gen, Matti Peled and David Shaham, affiliated with the left-wing Committee for an Israeli-Palestinian Peace which believes that Israel should negotiate with the Palestine Liberation Organization. They did so without consulting the Yaad executive and Ms. Aloni, who believes that position to be too extreme, claimed Yaad was being compromised and dragged too far to the left.

A meeting of the Yaad Secretariate last week failed to settle the differences and Aloni sent a formal letter to the faction’s executive committee today dissolving the group, Each member will retain his or her Knesset seat, Aloni, who founded the Civil Rights Party after she quit the Labor Party during the administration of Premier Golda Meir, is expected to form a new faction along with her associate, Boaz Moav, Eliav, an independent MK since he quit the Labor Party earlier this year, will form a new faction of his own along with former Civil Rights Party MK Marsha Friedman.