Begin's Troubles at Home and Abroad

...Israel's position in Western Europe is certainly not improving Yet it is the domestic troubles—particularly housing and inflation—that seem to be knocking hardest at Likud's door For reasons that would require a lengthy economic and historical analysis, rental housing is so exorbitantly expensive to build m today's Israel that it is practically non-existent People in towns and cities own condominium apartments, whose prices, always high compared to other countries, have skyrocketed in recent years The situation has been aggravated by three interacting developments Expectations of higher living standards have spread through every strata of society, including low-income groups and social welfare recipients, adding to the huge demand for better and larger living quarters Inflation has made houses and apartments much sought after safe and profitable investments, further boosting demand Simultaneously, the same inflation has upped both the price of urban land and of construction To ease the pressure in the overcrowded Tel Aviv region, the last Labor Administration adopted a policy of population dispersal It built tens of thousands of housing units in outlying development areas, but these were only partly filled with new occupants by the time Likud gained power The new government practically abandoned the program, leaving it with billions of dollars worth of empty houses and without a policy—or even moral lever- ?age—to induce those wishing to improve their housing to move away from the cities As a result, the demand for government-built subsidized housing in the overpopulated areas has doubled?and the people who demand the loudest are precisely those who have the least money to pay for the expensive quarters With "squatters occupation" of nearly-finished developments by frustrated slum-dwellers multiplying, the government dramatically increased the number of low-interest mortgages This let off some steam—but stepped up the inflation The storm surrounding General Eytan broke when some unpublished sections of the State Comptroller's report on "Operation Litani" were disclosed in the Knesset "Operation Litam," it will be recalled, was last year's brief takeover of a 10-20 mile strip of southern Lebanon to clear the area of PLO bases that were being used as launching pads for terrorist attacks on Israel and on the Christian towns and villages in Lebanon The parts of the report previously made public had listed various "irregularities of behavior" by Israeli soldiers and officers, some of whom were court-martialed Now, it was revealed that the Chief of Staff had commuted several of the sentences—including reduction to two years of an eight-year sentence handed down against a lieutenant found guilty of killing four prisoners This case, moreover, came to light only a few weeks after the Chief of Staff reduced the sentence received by a reservist who, to revenge the death of a buddy killed from behind by a PLO terrorist, opened fire on an innocent Arab passerby The criticism of Eytan couldn't have come at a less opportune moment for Begin Not long before, he had knuckled under to the pressure from the extremist Gush Emunim movement (whose patron is Sharon) and approved the establishment of a Jewish settlement at Elon Moreh, near Nablus, part of it on Arab-owned land The landowners obtained an order nisi from the Supreme Court requiring Israel to show cause why it should not desist from the project Since Defense Minister Weizman was known to oppose the settlement, which he does not find essential for the nation's security, the Prime Minister had to ask the hawkish pro-settlement Chief of Staff to submit the experts' opinion to the Court The opposition thereupon fanned the flames of the controversy engulfing Eytan by accusing the government of dragging the military into the political arena It was in the midst of all this that the story of the festive reception accorded Arafat by Chancellor Kreisky hit Israel The origins of the event go back several years Up to that point the Socialist International was always considered one of the international forums most friendly to Israel Then it came under pressure from Leftist pro-PLO circles demanding the adoption of a "more balanced attitude" on the Middle East Eventually this movement led to the appointment of a fact-finding committee headed by Kreisky, the leader of the Austrian Social Democratic Party Israel disliked the entire business from the very beginning, not least because Kreisky is despised for what is perceived here as his efforts to run away from his Jewish origin Nor had his rudeness toward and maladroitly worded criticisms of Israeli leaders?regarded as yet another example of how self-hatred affects some Jews who reach positions of influence—been forgotten Kreisky refused to meet the late Golda Meir when she wanted to explain why there was no moral obligation to carry out Austrian promises made to Palestinian terrorists who had seized a tramload of Jewish emigrants en route from the Soviet Union (More recently, he called Prime Minister Begin a "petty shopkeeper or lawyer from Warsaw or somewhere else' —a description that lacked only the word "Jewish" to make it sound anti-Se-mitic ) Still, Kreisky is not the entire Socialist International, and so Israel—then headed by Labor—agreed to cooperate with the fact-finding committee Indeed, the present Labor Party chief, Shimon Peres, helped formulate an outline of understanding that included recognition of the Palestinians' right to participate in determining their future Jerusalem even turned a blind eye to informal contacts being established between committee representatives and the PLO Several months ago, though, Kreisky suggested that Arafat himself be invited to meet with leaders of the International so that they could question him directly Peres objected to the whole idea, while others offered only limited support Willy Brandt insisted, as a precaution, that the PLO first accept UN Resolution 242, stipulating Israel's right to exist "within recognized secure boundaries " Pierre Mendes France declared that he would participate in such a meeting only if the questions to be posed to Arafat as well as the nature of the answers were determined beforehand The veteran French statesman thereby hoped to prevent Arafat from spouting his propaganda without having to give anything in return There MATTERS Stood until early July, when it was suddenly learned that Arafat would be arriving in Vienna the very next day for talks with Kreiskv and Brandt Under the circumstances, there was no time for Peres to take counteraction in the International And, as it to add insult to injury, Kreisky received the terrorist chiet with the honors usually reserved for heads of state The outcome ol the meeting suprised no one here Despite the Austrian Chancellors self-righteous had now substantially shillcd towaid moderation and "realism," Araiat steadfastly refused to say that the terrorist organization would recognize the existence of Israel or even accept in principle UN Resolution 242 Once out of Vienna, in fact, his spokesman hurried to reaffirm that there was absolutely no change in the PLO stand, which calls for the destruction of the Jewish State Actually, Israelis would not have gotten terribly excited if this had been just another Kreisky trick What deeply shocked this nation was that Willy Brandt—who was forced to run for his life from the Nazis, and who was Bun-deskanzler when Arab terrorists perpetrated the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics—had lent a hand to giving Arafat respectability The incident seemed to confirm not only Israel's tears about its slipping image abroad, especially in the case of Germany's position vis-a-vis the Jewish State, but also its worst suspicions about the corrupting influence of the oil whip held by the Arabs over the heads of the Europeans Nevertheless, Kreisky's exercise did have a slight benefit for Begin For the slap at the Labor Party, and Shimon Peres personally, came at the very moment the Opposition was making the government's settlement and autonomy policy one of the major issues in its fight to recapture power With the instinct of a master-politician, Begin immediately invited Labor to join him m denouncing the Kreisky-Brandt-Ara-fat meeting Peres had little choice but to accept, postponing again a clear-cut division between his Labor party and the government on the Palestinian issue Vet neither the Vienna meeting nor the idyllic summit between Begin and Sadat will have any long-lasting impact on Begin's mounting domestic troubles Peres' loss of face and Sadat's hugs cannot compensate tor the growing sense ot social and political deterioration, or for the chaotic effect ot swelling inflation at most the day of reckoning has been postponed Eliahu Salpiter, a regular correspondent for Ha'aretz one Israel's leading newspapers...

...AFTER TWO YEARS IN OFFICE Begin's Troubles at Home and Abroad ^^^^ ARIEL SHARON Tel Aviv After two years in power, Menachem Begin's right-of-center coalition government is in considerable double both at home and abroad Here in Israel it has run aloul of low-income groups whom the Prime Minister s [ Likud Party, in us pre-election campaign, led to expect (among other things) a quick relief of their housing problems In addition, Begin's hardline chief of staff, General Rafael Eytan, is under severe public criticism for what many people consider to be excessive use of his power to commute military court sentences And, worst of all, the country's worsening economic mess is threatening to become catastrophic in the near future In the area of foreign affairs, tensions between Jerusalem and Washington have been exacerbated by differences over monitoring the peace treaty m the Sinai following the Security Council's failure to renew the mandate of the United Nations Emergency Forces there Begin's policies on the West Bank and Gaza also seem to be headed for a dangerous deadlock with Egypt The Middle East involvement of Robert Strauss, appointed by President Carter to head the American delegation at the Autonomy talks, and Begin's summits with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat have aided the effort to present cordiality as actual progress in the negotiations It is becoming increasingly clear, However, that Begin and Sadat have not gotten am closet on their interpretations of the term "autonomy " Meanwhile, the establishment of new settlements in Judea and Samaria continues to threaten not only a head-on collision with the U S but trouble in the Israeli Cabinet Begin has already clashed openly on the issue with Defense Minister Ezer Weizman and, less seriously, with Foreign Minister Moshe Davan These two men...

...and some of the other more moderate members of the government, repeatedly find their views outvoted in favor of positions held by superhawk Agriculture Minister Ariel ("Arik") Sharon, who seems to have become the dark side of the Prime Minister Finally, PLO leader Yasir Arafat's invitation last month to an official meeting in Vienna with Austrian Chancellor Bruno kreisky and Former German Chancellor Willy Brandt, in their capacity as leaders ot the Socialist International, had a sobering effect on Israelis They were suddenly reminded that despite the pomp and circumstance ot the peace treaty...