Season of Gloom in Israel

...In different circumstances Labor Prime Minister Shimon Peres might seek an opportunity to call Hussein's bluff...

...On balance, Peres wants to maintain the coalition...

...uregu far NL conirib-utor, is a correspondent for Ha'aret/, one of Israel's leading newspapers...

...To Israel's credit, there was little public support for setting the zealots free, and some Rightist politicians retracted a bit after considering the effect that might have on the rule of law...

...Berri, while bluntly telling the PLO that he will not abide a renewal of its attacks on Israeli settlements because they would bring heavy retaliation, has also warned that his militia will hit out at Israeli troops crossing into the intended buffer strip on brief patrols...

...shelters, and the Army has been reinforcing defense installations...

...Some observers, for instance, are keeping a wary eye on Syria's feverish rearmament...

...Labor's need to pacify the Right could thus cost the country much international good will...

...General Antoine Lahd's Christian "South Lebanese Army" has begun to melt away from the defense zone, jeopardizing the IDF's strategy...

...Tranquillity in the north is hardly certain, though...

...The workers refused the offer, barricaded themselves in the factory, sent hunger strikers to demonstrate in front of the Knesset, obtained Histadrut's support, and ultimately forced officials to express their willingness to consider the idea of offering loan guarantees to potential buyers of the money-losing concern...

...Israelis generally believe that most Arabs are not ready to accept the existence of a Jewish State in their midst, and that the current burst of diplomatic activity will therefore come to nothing...

...And of the two the challenge of social unrest may soon rank as the more urgent problem facing Israel...

...Even Shamir and the Chief Rabbis argued that it was inconceivable for hundreds of Arab murderers to go scot-free while misguided Jewish patriots languished in jail...

...Again, although the basic terms of the swap, notably the ratio, had been settled more than a year ago by Likud, the entire government was seen as the villain...

...on the third they arrested the leaders of the taxi rebellion...

...The dominant force in the southern part of that ravaged land, Nabih Berri'sShiite Amal organization, has made clear in word and bloody deed that it will not tolerate a return of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to its former haunts in the area...

...Rarely, in fact, has the mood of the people con-Irasted so sharply with what appears to be a period of opportunity...

...True, Likud's chickens have come home to roost: Its Lebanon adventure cost over 600 dead, to say nothing of billions of wasted dollars, and its misdirection of the economy remains a painful legacy...

...So both external and internal factors account for the gloom pervading the country...

...There are signs, however, that a non-political threat to law may have to be confronted too...

...Israel's release of 1,150 convicted terrorists for three Israeli soldiers held by Ahmed Jabril's small Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command elicited almost unanimous criticism (indicating, incidentally, that public opinion is a good deal healthier than some have suggested...

...But Peres and President Chaim Herzog (who has the right to grant pardons) have resisted the request, insisting on the preservation of due process...

...Yet Israelis tend to attribute these disasters to the government as a whole, not to Likud...

...And for the first time King Hussein has indicated (albeit not quite publicly) a willingness to form a delegation of Jordanians and non PLO Palestinians whose ultimate purpose would be direct peace talks with Israel...

...Except for an occasional presence in a narrow defense zone north of the border, t he Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have withdrawn completely...

...But Likud's rigidity has forced him to navigate on very thin ice: vaguely approving diplomatic maneuvers in Amman without being explicit enough to antagonize his ministerial partners...

...Paying off the debts and modernizing the antiquated machinery of this partly government-owned firm would cost in excess of $40 million...

...On the contrary, PLO spokesmen have reiterated their opposition to a Palestinian state federated with Jordan as well as their rejection of UN Resolutions 242 and 338...

...The Cabinet's economic committee decided to close down the plant, give extra benefits to employees near retirement age, and provide retraining and new jobs for the rest...

...In addition, the new free trade agreement with the United States, complementing a similar pact with the European Economic Community, should improve the country's export prospects upon coming into effect September 1 and help to stem the hemorrhaging of foreign currency reserves...

...Settlements in the Galilee already have begun to clean up their underground Eliahu Salpeter...

...Similarly, King Hussein's assuring Washington and London that PLO chief Yasir Arafat is prepared to enter the process that would eventually produce direct negotiations with Jerusalem is greeted very skeptically here...

...Riding slowly through the center of Jerusalem (and then of Tel Aviv), the drivers tenaciously bogged down midcity traffic, setting a taxicab ablaze at the end of each demonstration and getting in the way of firemen trying to extinguish the flames...

...For two days the police simply watched the proceedings...

...Overall, the PLO is in the worst shape it has been since the 1973 Yom Kippur War...

...The slogan of the moment is, "Having taken the soldiers out of Lebanon, we must now take Lebanon out of the soldiers...

...Pulling out of Lebanon has of course been the most significant achievement so far of the eight-month-old National Unity government linking the Labor Party and the Likud coalition...

...They seized explosives and for a time threatened to blow themselves up along with the mine, unless the go vernment solemnly pledged to keep it open...

...The recent Histadrut (General Confederation of Labor) contest, in which Labor improved its position substantially at Likud's expense, seems to have confirmed Peres' optimism...

...Neither the King nor Arafat is willing to declare such intentions publicly...

...Reaction to the latest prisoner exchange was another example...

...It started with the bankruptcy of one of the nation's oldest and largest textile companies, Ata, near Haifa...

...Before the Ata affair was off the front pages, the country's taxi drivers went out on a bitter strike...

...After all, three years of floundering in the morass of Lebanon have finally come to a close...

...Following the Jabril deal all the Right-wing parties demanded the release of the 15 Jewish extremists being held in prison for terrorist acts against West Bank Palestinians...

...This should end the demoralizing burden of largely policing an increasingly hostile foreign civilian population and at last permit the military to resume their real task: rigorous training in defending Israel against any attack by its neighbors...

...Nonetheless, others—including sympathizers—caution that Histadrut is by its very nature biased toward the Left, and that the people at large are more hawkish than his good ratings in the popularity polls seem to indicate...

...Still, he and many members of his party feel Labor would win a substantial majority if new elections were held before the current government's midpoint in 1986—when the Prime Minister is scheduled to hand his office to Likud's Yitzchak Shamir, the present Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister...

...They were protesting the fact that gasoline prices had been raised 40 per cent, and the increase in taxi fares had been held to less than 20 per cent...

...Continuing economic stresses have created an unpleasant air of impending anarchy...

...In this atmosphere it was hardly surprising that when workers in the Timna copper mines, near Eilat, heard rumors of an impending shutdown—falling copper prices have made operations extremely uneconomic—they quickly resorted to force...

...To further complicate matters, his group and more radical elements, especially the fundamentalist Hezbollah(PartyofGod), arecompeting for Shiite support and can be expected to do so by trying to outstrip one another in showing their toughness toward Israel...

...On the economic side, despite Israel's well-publicized inflation difficulties its high-tech industries are doing better than ever...