Israel's Government of Equals

...Peres will hold the post of Prime Minister for two years, while Shamir serves as Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister...

...Some suspect that Labor is not wholly averse to the idea of Likud being primarily associated in the public mind with unpopular retrenchments that are inevitable...

...Most of the debate about the rescue program has concerned who should be in charge of executing it...

...Whatever the case, the overriding hope is that a Likud-Labor partnership secure enough to slash subsidies on food and fuel, impose new taxes, and negotiate a wage-price freeze package will succeed in stopping inflation...

...The price was high: Giving Sharon a ministry that qualified for a seat in the Inner Cabinet, and getting Peres and the Labor Party to acquiesce, amounted to full political rehabilitation...

...Since a 25-member body is obviously too unwieldy for smooth, speedy decision-making, an Inner Cabinet of 10 has been set up as well, again split between Labor and Likud...

...Supporters counter that leaving some controversies in abeyance is the only way to achieve the cooperation the election returns apparently demand...

...This was Sharon's way of announcing that he is still far from satisfied with his role...

...With 25 Cabinet members, the coalition is the largest Israeli government ever...

...at $24 billion the foreign debt is one of the highest, per capita, in the world...

...The remainder of the Cabinet reflects a similarly precise balancing of the two camps—with an odd seat assigned by mutual agreement to Yosef Burg, head of the National Religious Eiiahu Salpeter, a regular NL contributor, is a correspondent for Ha'aretz, one of Israel's leading newspapers...

...Whether the joining of the socialist Labor Party and the mainstream Right Likud bloc might best be described as a shotgun wedding or as a marriage of convenience is hard to say...

...The shadow on the landscape is the re-emergence of the cunning and charismatic Ariel Sharon, long a troublesome and trouble-making figure within the Likud bloc, particularly its Herut Party component...

...Thirdly, the small religious parties—who often held the balance of power and were able to trade their Knesset votes for excessive funding of religious institutions and the imposition of public religious observance —have been shorn of their disproportionate influence...

...He quickly found that not only would this be impossible without Likud's participation, but that given its strength he would have to accept the principle of parity...

...Yet slowly, steadily he managed to bounce back, cultivating the constituencies that see his pugnaciousness as superpa-triotism...

...the balance-of-payments deficit is enormous...

...And to doubly assure the rule's observance in sensitive matters, it has been stipulated that the most important portfolios must have deputies from the "other side...

...Rather, many observers here are saying, survival will depend on how successful the two are at jointly sidestepping the booby traps and defusing the time bombs that Ariel Sharon, now Minister of Trade and Industry, seems determined to place in their path...

...The ultranationalist Tehiya Party has abandoned Likud, while the far Left Mapam Party has quit the Labor Alignment to form a Left-wing opposition with the dovish Citizens' Rights Party, the Progressive Peace Party and the Communists...

...Instead, Sharon turned around and attempted to organize a revolt against the party leader by challenging his right to appoint the Herut members of the coalition...

...In any event, it is noted, the national emergency requiring unity today is not external but internal: Israel's economy is on the verge of collapse...

...No one has any doubt about what the first priority of the government must be, nor is there any basic disagreement between the ruling partners on where swift, stringent action needs to be taken...

...All of this amounts to an unquestionably unique experiment in running the country...

...To win Sharon's support for the national unity scheme, Shamir promised him an active senior government position...

...The electorate had pretty evenly divided Parliament between Left and Right: Labor had won 45 seats, Likud 41, leaving both far short of the minimum 61-seat majority...

...Upon assuming office, Peres called on Jordan to come to the negotiating table and was immediately rebuffed by King Hussein, who clearly is far from ready for such a step...

...Actually, there was no alternative once it was decided that nothing would be gained from another round of national balloting now...

...THE PROSPECTS FOR COOPERATION Israel's Government of Equals BY ELIAHU SALPETER Tel Aviv The probable longevity of Israel's new Government of National Unity is no longer so much a question of whether the Labor Party's Shimon Peres and the Likud's Yitzchak Shamir can work together— they appear to get along quite well...

...To begin with, in contrast to the usual pattern, the mainstream Right and the moderate Left have been linked and are sharing responsibility for the country's destiny...

...Thus where previous national unity governments created in periods of emergency (for example, on the eve of the 1973 Yom Kippur War) fully acknowledged Labor's dominance, what has emerged this time is an administration of equals...

...Many politicians were betting that he would never be able to regain anything approaching his former degree of influence...

...Labor insists that it retains significant power over the economy through Minister of Economic Planning Gad Yaa-cobi, Minister of Agriculture Eric Nech-amkin, and Minister of Defense Yitzchak Rabin...

...and adding in the votes of their respective allies, each could rally exactly 60—sufficient only to prevent the other side from taking charge...

...He has made up his mind to replace Shamir as the head of Herut and the Likud, lead the bloc to victory in the next elections and become Prime Minister...

...Forced to give up his post as Defense Minister under Mena-chem Begin after a special investigating tribunal found him indirectly responsible for the September 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacres, he was reduced to Minister Without Portfolio and virtually shunned by his colleagues...

...On the basis of soundings among the lesser political groupings and in the light of Labor's slight numerical lead, President Herzog asked Peres to try his hand first at forming a government...

...Besides the major parties, it includes seven smaller ones that came aboard at the last moment, and enjoys a better than 90-seat majority in the 120-seat Knesset...

...Under a prior consultation rule, though, the Prime Minister may not act without first consulting the Deputy Prime Minister...

...To be sure, the present ruling arrangement was not easily arrived at...

...Party, which has refused to join either one...

...Critics inside and outside the coalition worry that the Government of National Unity will be a Government of National Immobility, unable to take action on crucial controversial issues...

...Even as he spoke about the "principles involved" in his opposition tactics, his close associates were quite open about his ultimate goals...

...But Shamir thought he had a deal...

...Critics of the coalition agreement are unhappy that the Ministry of Finance has gone to Likud' s Yitzchak Modai and the Ministry of Trade and Industry to Sharon...

...When Sharon was voted down by an overwhelming majority of the party's Central Committee, he teamed up with outgoing Deputy Prime Minister David Levy to question several clauses of the Peres-Shamir agreement just before it was to be signed, forcing a 24hour postponement of its adoption...

...It is also one more reason they hope the new coalition's leaders will prove nimble enough not to let the Government of National Unity be blown up by Sharon or anyone else...

...Initial moves in this direction were announced within two days of the government's confirmation...

...Six weeks of crisis-ridden negotiations were required to hammer out the compromise announced just 72 hours before the expiration of the mandate President Chaim Herzog gave Peres in the wake of the inconclusive July general elections...

...Since Likud's mismanagement over the past seven years caused the current crisis, they argue, the party shouldn't be entrusted with the task of correcting the situation...

...and currency reserves have fallen below the $3 billion "red line...

...That is a chilling prospect to most Israelis...

...A union of love it is not...

...Peres' pledge to withdraw Israeli troops from Lebanon as soon as the northern border can be secured has the backing of the coalition...

...then they will reverse their roles until the elections scheduled two years later...

...Moreover, they point out, it is unlikely that a decision will be required in the near future on the most divisive issue in Israel, the fate of the West Bank and Gaza...

...Although the focus has been on its impact in the economic sphere, the Government of National Unity has dramatically redrawn Israel's political map, too...

...In addition, both have parted ways with their more extreme former allies...

...They included a plan to cut this year's $20 billion national budget by a billion dollars, and a 9 per cent devaluation of the shekel...

...The annual inflation rate is 400 per cent and rising...