Efforts to Establish Coalition Government Hit Further Snags

Labor Alignment efforts to establish a new coalition government shifted toward the ultra-Orthodox Aguda bloc yesterday as a rift developed between Labor and the Independent Liberal Party. The bargaining position of the ILP, which has four Knesset seats, was weakened when the three-seat Civil Rights List of Mrs. Shulamit Aloni dropped out of the coalition talks. ‘Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir, apparently relieved at not having to make concessions to the stubbornly liberal Mrs. Aloni, moved closer to an understanding with the so-called “Torah Front.”

In a relaxed mood after making some progress in talks with Agudists Menachem Porush and Shlomo Lorincz, Sapir allegedly dropped a gratuitous insult in the direction of ILP leader Moshe Kol, enraging the Liberals and making it less likely than ever that they would join a Labor-led coalition.

According to press reports–which Sapir has vehemently denied–he remarked to Porush and Lorincz that with the Aloni faction out of the coalition picture, “Moshe Kol can no longer be Moshe Groise.” (“Moshe Groise” is a Yiddish expression denoting a person who thinks too highly of himself.) The ILP demanded an apology. Sapir refused but telephoned Kol to tell him he had never made the derogatory remark. The upshot was that the ILP negotiators boycotted the coalition talks yesterday and today.

The anomaly, as political observers pointed out, is that Sapir, an old-line Socialist, feels more comfortable negotiating with the right-wing religiously militant Aguda bloc than with the Liberals whose philosophy would seem to be much closer to that of Labor. This was explained by the fact that the Agudists are ready to go along with Labor on foreign policy matters as long as they can get their way in the religious sphere. Sapir also sees the Agudists as an instrument with which to bring the National Religious Party in line.

‘WHO IS A JEW’ STILL CONTROVERSIAL

The main obstacle to a Labor-Religious bloc coalition is the controversial “Who is a Jew?” issue. Both the NRP and the Agudists are equally adamant in demanding an amendment to the Law of Return to specify that only conversions performed by Orthodox rabbis are recognized in Israel. Labor has said it would never agree to this. But there were indications this week that it was

The NRP itself has reportedly suggested administrative decrees that would give the Chief Rabbinate the authority to review conversions performed abroad before they are certified here A similar proposal is that any convert wanting to be registered as a Jew would have to get confirmation by a special rabbinical tribunal.

These proposals would be raised by the NRP in the form of private Knesset bills thereby avoiding a fight within the coalition but would have Labor support. So far the ILP has rejected all such proposals as attempts to change the Law of Return without formally amending it. Apart from the conversion dispute. Labor and the NRP are in accord on foreign policy except for the religious party’s refusal to countenance withdrawal from any part of the West Bank (Judaea-Samaria). Here too, a “way out” has been proposed whereby the NRP, on joining a coalition, would declare its right to leave it should the government agree to withdrawals from the West Bank.