Shaking Up Israeli Politics

...Shaking Up Israeli Politics BY eliahu salpeter Tel Avrv Israel's ruling United Labor party (ULP), that sluggish but dominant middle-of the-road political behemoth long noted for its habit of hibernating three and a halt years and coming to life only six months before election day, has suddenly begun to stir Some observers here see this as confirming speculation that Prime Minister Golda Meir intends to advance the Knesset elections, now scheduled for October 1973, to March or April Others, while recognizing that possibility, point to three widely separate developments, each sufficient in itself to jar the party from its slumbers (1) the dramatic change in relations between the ULP and the Histadrut, Israel's national labor federation, (2) the move toward a far-reaching electoral reform, and (3) the debate over future relations with the Arabs, both m the Administered Territories and across the cease-fire hnes The first sign that things are no longer quite what they used to be came several months ago, in the wake of an official investigation into the management of Netivei Nett, a government company engaged in refining and transporting petroleum from oil fields in the Sinai Though he had openly opposed the inquiry, former Minister of Justice Yaakov Shrmshon Shapira, a confidant of Mrs Men's, was—most uncharacteristically—forced to give m under mounting public pressure The commission set up to study the case did not confirm the worst of the charges, but it found enough irregularities to compel the manager of the company to resign Then, as is customary, the Ministry of Justice determined the sum to be awarded the lawyers who represented those involved in the investigation Through some still unexplained calculation, the rates recommended by the ministry and approved by the commission chairman, a Supreme Court judge, gave each ot the counsels—all prominent attorneys—daily fees equal to about twice the monthly take home pay of an average worker Because of the extraordinary public uproar that ensued, the Cabinet later rejected Shapira's objections to the appointment of retired General Meir Zorea as new director of the State Lands Management Zorea's selection was unrelated to the tact that while serving on the commission of inquiry, he had filed a minority report much more damaging than the majority opinion of the other two members But, taking the Cabinet's decision as a personal affront, Shapira resigned his post The surprising failure of the ULP Eliahu Salpeter a frequent con-tnbutor to these pages, is a member of the editorial board of Ha'aretz, one of Israel's leading newspapers leadership to stand unflinchingly behind a member of its innermost circle was soon overshadowed, however, by a rapidly escalating dispute with the secretary general of the Hista-drut, Yitzhak Ben Ahaion A leader of the Achdut Ha'avoda party before it merged with Mapai to form the present ULP coalition, Ben Aharon was supported tor the top post by the Histadrut Executive's Mapai majority—as a reward to Achdut Ha'avoda, and m the hope that a strong secretary geneial would be able to restrain the growing tiend toward wildcat strikes in key industries and services Like the proverbial sorcerer's apprentice, though, he immediately set out to end the Hista drut's traditional subservience to the wishes of the ULP Since Labor ministers hold the portfolios of Finance, Trade and Industry, and Agriculture, this inevitably led to conflicts between party representatives in the government and the trade unions Despite some gnashing of teeth in the Cabinet, a certain level of friction might have been tolerable had Ben Aharon not collided head-on with Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir's two basic economic principles To begin with, he broke the terms of the so-called "package deal" to which he had been a somewhat reluctant signatory a few months earlier In that agreement, the government, the Manufacturers Association and the Histadrut respectively had pledged not to raise taxes, prices or wage demands so long as the other two maintained their part of the bargain But when several union locals presented demands exceeding the allowed margins of adjustment, Ben Aharon supported them and even showed up to join their picket lines Next, he challenged the longstanding tenet of the moderate Labor leadership that Israel, as a country m need of rapid development, must encourage private investment from abroad and private initiative at home At the very moment that Soviet troops were beginning their withdrawal from Egypt, making re newed fighting less likely than before, he called for converting the nation to a ' war economy" with rigid government controls of prices, profits and capital transactions His plan, he admitted, aimed at soaking the rich to boost the income of the poor ULP leaders in the government-particularly Sapir, who decides economic policy-feel that Ben Aharon's activities may seriously endanger Israel's remarkable economic expansion and its modest success in curbing attendant inflationary pressures Therefore it is almost a foreyitzhak ben aharon gone conclusion that sooner or later they will mobilize their forces on the Histadrut Executive to bring about his resignation They realize, ot course, that such a move could cause a major split m their party, since its Achdut Ha'avoda component may well line up behind Ben Aharon against Mrs Meir, Sapir, and other Mapai veterans While the Ben Aharon affair is definitely on the debit side of the ULP ledger, the recent introduction of the Election Reform bill in the Knesset is certainly on the credit side For 20 years political scientists and many politicians have urged changes in Israel's proportional-representation system Under it, the entire country is one single electoral district, the 129 Knesset seats are divided among all the parties accord ing to the number of votes they receive in the nationwide balloting There are two main objections to this system First, it perpetuates the fragmentation of the political spectrum into a multiplicity of small parties, thus preventing the emergence of any two large enough to contest each other effectively for an absolute majority in Parliament and the concomitant right to govern the country Secondly, since all Knesset members are actually "representa-tives-at-large," the fate of most legislators depends on the party machines' willingness to put their names on the ticket rather than on the satisfaction of the voters they represent Those who oppose changing over to a district electoral system argue that it would eliminate the small parties, thereby reducing the expression of minority opinions, as well as perpetuate Labor's present domination of the government Nonetheless, one of the bigger opposition groups, the Liberal party, has risked a split with its Gahal ally, the Herut party, to support the reform bill submitted by Labor's Gad Yaacobi, the deputy minister of communications and a former assistant to General Moshe Dayan Under his mixed-system proposal, 90 Knesset members would be chosen by geographical area (just as U S senators are, except that five men instead of two would be elected from each of 18 electoral districts), the remaining 30 would be selected on a nationwide proportional-representaiton basis, as are all 120 now The eventual enactment of the Yaacobi bill, considered virtually certain, is not expected to lead to any sudden change in the present 2 1 majority of the Labor coalition over its opposition Rather, on both sides, the larger partners will gam strength and some of the smaller factions will probably be eliminated Perhaps equally important, every party, and particularly the ULP, will be moved to replace many of its old-timers with younger and more attractive candidates The pressure to rejuvenate the Labor party may, in turn, have an impact on the recently renewed debate over Israel's future relations with domestic and foreign Arabs In oversimplified terms, the disputants divide into "hawks'" and "doves," with the leading birds on each side holding some younger ones of the same feather under their wings The top hawk today is Mrs Meir herself, supported by Israel Galih, the veteran Aehdut Ha'avoda leader and now Labor minister without portfoho, who has become her closest adviser On this issue, the two are allied with Defense Minister Moshe Dayan and Communications Minister Shimon Peres, who were their arch foes only a few years ago as leaders of the small Rati party that under David Ben-Gunon temporarily broke away from Mapai and later joined the ULP coalition Most of the traditional Mapai machine leans to the dovish side, rallying behind Sapir and two younger leaders—Ane Ehav, the former secretary general of the party, and Avraham Offer, head of the major housing construction enterprise affiliated with the Histadrut To complete this crazy-quilt pattern, the Arab question has made nest-fellows of Sapir and Ben Aharon, each of whom would otherwise gladly drown the other in the nearest available glass of water The long-simmering dove-hawk controversy was brought to a confusing boil by the recent publication of Ehav's Dear Country An Evaluation of Possibilities Open to Israel, followed by Dayan's demand that the Labor party make up its mmd about the nature of Israel's presence in the Administered Territories Ehav's book restates his position that Israel should recognize the existence of a separate Palestinian Arab people, and proposes a separate peace with the Palestinians that would in elude returning to them most of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip Together with Transjordan, he says, these territories should form a new State of Palestine All of this is anathema to Mrs Meir and the other Labor hawks, who feel Israel could strike a much better bargain over the heads of the Palestinians by negotiating a settlement with King Hussein and President Anwar el-Sadat (or whoevei succeeds him as the leader of Egypt) Consequently, they are alarmed about Ehav's announced intention to undertake a lecture tour of Labor's local party branches to gam converts to his views among the rank-and-file General Dayan's demand, meanwhile, came m reaction to Mrs Men's surprising echo of Sapir's well-known objection to the ever-expanding employment of Arab workers from the Administered Territories at Israeli factories, farms and construction sites For Mrs Meir this is probably no more than an emotional reflex stemming from the old Zionist principle that Israel should be built not by Arab labor but by Jewish hands For Sapir it is a political matter He feels that close economic links between Israel and the territories will decrease the like lihood of withdrawal and ultimately lead to the creation of a binational State of Israel in which the Arabs, with their higher birthrate, would soon become the majority Dayan, who minimizes such dangers, wants the closest possible economic integration of Israel and the territories And it seems he is confident that if he forces a showdown now, Mrs Meir and the majority of the Labor leadership will support his position That remains open to ques tion, but there is no doubt that the political season has arrived here earlier than expected and is likely to result in some significant changes...