The daughter of Defense Minister Moshe Dayan believes that Israel’s political leadership is badly in need of young blood. But she doesn’t think her father should resign as many Israelis have been demanding. Mrs. Yael Dayan-Sion, an Israeli novelist who writes in English and whose books are translated into Hebrew, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today that “a change must take place in the Israeli leadership.”
But she said the change must come about through “free elections” within the ruling Labor Party to select new leaders. She was opposed to the automatic removal of veteran leaders such as Premier Golda Meir, Israel Galili and her father, but predicted that changes would occur rather soon, “may be before the next general elections.”
Mrs. Dayan-Sion, 35, is married to an Israeli army officer and has two children. She has just concluded a two-week lecture tour in the U.S. on behalf of the United Jewish Appeal and returns to Israel today. Asked about the recent public clam or in Israel for her father’s departure from the government, she replied, “I don’t think he should resign. I believe in him. I accept his political and personal decision because I know his integrity and honesty.”
She noted that the Defense Minister was responsible only to the Prime Minister and that Mrs. Meir had twice refused to accept his tendered resignation. “That’s what matters, not the demands by students and Moti Ashkenazi,” she said referring to a Yom Kippur War veteran who recently gathered thousands of signatures on a petition calling for Dayan’s resignation.
She said her two brothers, Audi and Asaf, the latter an actor, share her feeling that their father should not quit. She conceded that Gen. Dayan’s popularity in Israel has declined sharply since the Yom Kippur War. But she said that did not disturb him. “He is not heartbroken because of that,” she said. “He is not shattered. I am not sure that he went crazy because he had the status of a hero. I think he is less sensitive to popularity than other politicians. He has a job to do and that is what is important,” she said. (By Yitzhak Rabi)
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