Labor Party leader Yitzhak Rabin hopes to be able to present a new coalition Cabinet to President Ephraim Katzir this Friday. But the distribution of portfolios poses problems that he may not be able to solve by then, in which case Rabin will have to ask the President for an additional week’s extension.
A major obstacle was overcome last night when the Labor Alignment’s Central Committee voted overwhelmingly in favor of a Labor coalition with the Independent Liberal Party and the Civil Rights Party, a combination that will give the new government control of only 61 Knesset votes, the slimmest majority in Israel’s history. The door was left open for the National Religious Party to reconsider its refusal to join the new coalition. But NRP leader Yosef Burg said yesterday that he would urge the religious party’s Knesset faction to vote against the Rabin government when it seeks Knesset endorsement.
Rabin meanwhile must decide who to give the key posts of defense, finance and foreign affairs in his new Cabinet. Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir, who has headed the Finance Ministry for the past 18 years, is making it increasingly clear that he does not want to serve in the new government. In an interview just published in Maariv and in a speech in Tel Aviv the other day, he said he would rather concern himself with problems of aliya and would seek to join the Jewish Agency Executive, though he has not made a final decision.
That was interpreted as an indication that Sapir would be a candidate for the vacant chairmanship of the Jewish Agency and World Zionist Executives when the Jewish Agency General Assembly convenes in Jerusalem next month. If he runs, he is considered certain to get the dual post. Acting chairman Leon Dulzin, currently the leading candidate, has said he would drop out of the race if Sapir decided to enter it.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES MENTIONED FOR CABINET
Should Sapir decline to serve in Rabin’s Cabinet, the three most likely candidates mentioned for Finance Minister are Deputy Premier Yigal Allon, Information Minister Shimon Peres and Housing Minister Yehoshua Rabinowitz. Peres, who made a strong showing against Rabin in the contest for the Labor Party leadership two months ago, has also been mentioned as a candidate for either Defense Minister or Foreign Minister.
Labor’s Rafi faction is in fact demanding that the defense post be given to one of its own to succeed Rafi leader Moshe Dayan. The Achdut Avoda faction, which is Rabin’s branch of the party, is arguing vehemently that the defense portfolio is not Rafi’s private preserve. Rafi would probably be appeased if their man, Peres, is named Foreign Minister. But Abba Eban, who has been Israel’s Foreign Minister since 1965, has said he would be willing to serve in a Rabin government despite the reportedly bad relationship between himself and Rabin dating from the latter’s tenure as ambassador to the U.S. Eban has said that if Rabin fails to re-appoint him Foreign Minister he would consider that a “dismissal.”
Addressing the party’s Central Committee last night, Rabin stressed that since the Yom Kippur War the government has sought ways to decrease tension in the area by means of disengagement. That is the only policy that will ease tension and assure the re-strengthening of Israel’s armed forces in case of a new war, Rabin said. He flatly rejected the idea of a national unity government at this stage. He also rejected new elections at this time. There is no possibility of holding elections under present conditions, he said and urged the nation to be patient and to support his new regime.
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.
