Cabinet Averts Crisis over Kadum, Adopts Vague Formula That Leaves Matters About Where They Were

The Cabinet debated the issue of illegal settlements on the West Bank for nine consecutive hours today and finally approved a vague formula for dealing with the Gush Emunim squatters at Kadum that leaves the matter very much where it was before the debate began.

So nebulous was the formula–said to have been drafted by Minister-Without-Portfolio Israel Galili–that both the arch-dove Victor Shemtov of Mapam, and Zevulun Hammer, the leading hawk of the National Religious Party emerged from the meeting expressing a measure of satisfaction with it. While an immediate government crisis was averted, most observers believe the Cabinet succeeded only in postponing its day of reckoning over West Bank settlements and that a full-fledged crisis could emerge at a later stage.

The decision, adopted by a majority vote, is to move the Gush Emunim group out of Kadum to another site to be offered them by the government in accordance with its settlement policy. Mapam voted against the formula and the NRP abstained.

The Cabinet failed to spell out the government’s settlement policy, did not say when the Gush Emunim must leave Kadum and gave no hint of what action if any would be taken if they refused to move. Shemtov and his Mapam colleague. Absorption Minister Shlomo Rosen, wanted the Gush evacuated “tonight.” All other ministers opposed any such precipitate move.

BELIEVE ALLON PLAN FAVORED

Informed sources believe the government favors a policy broadly akin to the so-called Allon plan, proposed after the Six-Day War by Yigal Allon, now Israel’s Foreign Minister. It calls for Jewish settlement in the sparsely populated Jordan Valley and parts of the Judaean desert but excludes the central highlands of the West Bank where the Arab population centers are located.

Hammer said tonight that the Cabinet’s formula gave “grounds for hope” that a successful dialogue could yet be held with the Kadum squatters. He said much would depend on whether the alternative site offered them was in “the heart of Samaria” or not. Hammer implied that the Gush would reject any site on the fringes or outside of the Samaria region. Critics of the Gush Emunim have charged that the militant nationalist Orthodox group is less interested in settlement on the land than in cresting precedents for permanent retention of all of the West Bank which they claim belongs to Israel by divine right.

While the Cabinet was debating their fate, the Kadum squatters, living under army protection, were busy erecting prefabricated houses, the group’s secretary, Menahem Felix reported.