Behind the Headlines the Government’s Poor Domestic Record

Nine months after its establishment the government of Premier Menachem Begin still shows little ability to come to grips with the nation’s internal problems.

The negotiations with Egypt temporarily captured the public imagination, diverting attention from economic and social problems. But recently these issues have come to the fore again, reasserting their priority in the public mind. Analyzing its record on the domestic front, observers are left with the uncomfortable feeling that the Begin government resembles in many respects its unhappy predecessor, the government of Premier Yitzhak Rabin.

In the economic arena inflation is still galloping along at the horrendous rate of 40 percent annually. Finance Minister Simcha Ehrlich’s promises to decrease inflation remain to be fulfilled. Ehrlich is gradually projecting the image of a man who lacks the leadership qualities vital in a strong finance minister at such a juncture. Too often, in recent months, he has shown weakness in standing up to financial demands from his Cabinet colleagues.

The labor front is explosive. Last week the postal workers struck for three days. The strike of merchant seamen has entered its fourth week. All employes of government offices have threatened to strike. The fragile relations between employers and employes in the public services–apart from reflecting the destructive impact of inflation–create a doom-laden atmosphere throughout the economy. The strikes demonstrate that the government has lost at least a part of its popularity in the public mind.

The social gap persists. There are no signs of any improvement in this vexed and vital field. Deputy Premier Yigael Yadin, leader of the Democratic Movement for Change (DMC), appointed himself chief coordinator of the government’s activity in the social field. But his personal involvement is yet to make itself felt. Yadin’s political base, the DMC, won 15 seats in the Knesset under the slogan that the “real battlefield” is the social welfare front.

NO CHANGE IN CABINET’S FUNCTIONING

The Cabinet’s functioning is another object of criticism. The Begin Cabinet now consists of 19 members as a result of the recent addition of Likud’s Haim Landau and Moshe Nissim, as ministers-without-portfolio. Thus the Begin government is as large as Rabin’s was and its organizational structure is almost the same as the previous one.

Likud’s platform promised to streamline the government’s administrative structure and to implement new methods of running the public administration. But nothing really has been changed. The Likud Cabinet ministers have proven every bit as jealous of their formal authority as were their predecessors.

Cabinet solidarity in the Begin government, also resembles Rabin’s Cabinet in the personal relations prevailing among its members: Cabinet ministers sharply criticize each other in private conversations. Several ministers publicly express differing views on many issues. There have been several examples recently that clearly illustrated the disintegration of the early solidarity which Begin had sought to establish in his Cabinet.

During the dispute over the “archaeological mission” at Shiloh on the West Bank, the Defense Ministry, the Agriculture Ministry and the Education Ministry spoke in contradictory voices, accusing each other of creating the complications around the “archaeological” site.

The same happened over the bulldozing operations aimed at increasing the Israeli presence in the Rafah area. The Minister of Agriculture, Ariel Sharon, was accused by some of his Cabinet colleagues of deviating from the Cabinet’s decision. Defense Minister Ezer Weizman ordered a halt to all activity in the Rafah area, thus thwarting Sharon’s schemes, at least temporarily. Finance Minister Ehrlich refused to release additional funds to finance the “strengthening of the Rafah settlements,” as the bulldozing was called.

The cumulative effect of these weaknesses has diminished the Cabinet’s credibility. People remember Likud’s promises to restrain inflation, to calm labor relations, to bridge social gaps, to improve the government’s functioning and to remove the internal conflicts that characterized the previous Cabinet. For the time being, the Begin government has failed to accomplish its promises and consequently its credibility and prestige are in question.