Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir was struggling Tuesday to keep the Likud faithful in line, while fending off ultimatums from his Labor coalition partners and a stern notice from U.S. Secretary of State James Baker that he expects decisions from Israel “very quickly.”
Shamir’s problems with Likud stem from rumors Monday that he was softening under constant prodding from Washington and the Labor Party to accept Baker’s compromise formula for an Israeli-Palestinian dialogue.
Baker wants Israel to drop its opposition to the inclusion of East Jerusalem residents or deportees from the administered territories in the Palestinian delegation.
He told Foreign Minister Moshe Arens last week that unless there is a quick response from Israel, he will turn his attention away from the Middle East.
The Labor Party set a two-week deadline for the policy-making Inner Cabinet to decide in favor of the Baker plan or face dissolution of the unity government.
The political crisis sharpened when 23 members of the Likud Knesset faction petitioned Shamir for an immediate closed-door meeting in advance of any decisions on the peace process.
Some were angered when informed that the prime minister could not fit such a meeting into his schedule this week.
Ariel Sharon, who resigned from the Cabinet on Jan. 19, is now demanding another meeting of the 2,600-member Likud Central Committee, which he chairs, before the Cabinet makes any decision.
According to the Likud constitution, such meetings must be convened jointly by the chairman (Sharon) and the party leader (Shamir).
The last Central Committee meeting, which took place Feb. 12 in Tel Aviv, was called to debate the prime minister’s peace policies. It ended inconclusively and in bedlam.
LEVY REJECTS MEETING WITH SHAMIR
Shamir met privately Tuesday with Likud Knesset members Benny Begin and David Magen, hard-liners who have supported his diplomacy until now. He assured them that no major concessions are in the offing, a signal the Shamir camp was busy sending to other Likud members.
Magen, whom Shamir plans to appoint to the Cabinet, and Begin, son of former Prime Minister Menachem Begin, represent Likud’s young guard.
Even greater influence is wielded by Deputy Premier David Levy, an outspoken opponent of Shamir’s peace policies and one of his rivals for leadership of the party.
Levy flatly rejected an invitation from Shamir to meet privately to discuss the diplomatic situation and Likud’s serious internal problems.
Levy’s supporters said a meeting would be pointless, because the prime minister has “created faits accomplis” with regard both to the diplomatic process and the party.
Levy is known to be furious with Shamir for passing over his close ally, Knesset member Eliahu Ben-Elissar, when he reshuffled the Cabinet last week after Sharon resigned.
Another internal problem was created by the defection of five members of Likud’s Liberal Party faction, led by Economics and Planning Minister Yitzhak Moda’i, another fierce critic of Shamir’s peace diplomacy.
They have asked the Knesset House Committee to register as a new faction, tentatively named Party for the Promotion of Liberal Values.
Laborites have seized upon the defection to demand rotation of the office of prime minister, inasmuch as Likud is no longer the largest single party in the Knesset.
Likud is scornful of the idea, claiming the defectors would win no more than half a Knesset seat if they ran for election on a separate ticket.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
