Navon: Most Important National Task is to Unseat Likud Government

Former President Yitzhak Navon said today that the most important national task at the moment is to unseat the Likud government. But he was non-committal as to what role he might play to further that objective. Navon cut short a visit to the United States and Canada when Labor Party chairman Shimon Peres urged him to return home in telephone call after the Knesset approved an early elections bill last Thursday. Peres is said to want Navon to take an active part in the upcoming election campaign. Some of Navon’s backers in the Knesset are promoting the popular ex-President as the next Prime Minister in the event of a Labor victory.

Navon told reporters today that he has not decided yet how he would fit himself into the political scene. He said he would consult with his Labor Party colleagues as soon as possible to see how this could best be done.

He stressed, however, that leadership of the Labor Party is not an objective in itself nor is his own position an issue. The overriding need is to oust Likud, he said. He accused the government of polarizing Israeli society.

WORRIED ABOUT ‘SERIOUS AND BITTER THINGS’

“What worries me at present is what has been happening here in recent years — serious and bitter things — the deepening of internal hatreds between the Oriental and Ashkenazi communities, between the development towns and the kibbutzim, between the Orthodox and the secular elements, between the parties,” said Navon who is himself Sephardic.

He said he would not now “go into details of the economic and political situation and the war in Lebanon. I think there is an urgent national need to change the govemment. Everything else is secondary to that objective.”

Navon did not claim to know the best way to defeat Likud in the next elections. “We shall have to meet, to talk it over. We have to find the best way to do it together, reaching agreement amongst ourselves,” he said.

Navon may have been referring to the internal strife within the Labor Party, notably the bitter rivalry between Peres and former Premier Yitzhak Rabin. He implied that an internal leadership struggle must be avoided at all costs if Labor is to win a victory at the polls.