Labor Closes Ranks in Israel

...Neither Sephardi parents nor their Israeli-born children, however, enjoy the economic well-being of the Ashkenazi population...

...AS LIKUD QUARRELS Labor Closes Ranks in Israel BY ELIAHU SALPETER Tel AVIV Israel's Labor Party watched with evident joy as voters in the recent French, German and Italian elections demonstrated a clear dislike of the incumbents...

...Even in the event of a dramatic success at the polls, the dominant party's ability to form a government is bound to depend on how its potential coalition partners fared...

...On a more substantive level, Labor stands to benefit from Likud's failure to effectively confront the country's three critical interconnected problems: economic growth, immigrant absorption, and peace with the Arabs...

...Both frequently lay the responsibility for their plight at Shamir's doorstep...

...Likud has disappointed its two most important constituencies, the Sephardim and the immigrants from the former Soviet Union...

...Or that he launched a violent attack against what he termed Shamir's destructive domestic and dangerous foreign policies...

...And, in the long run, without a reasonable settlement Israel will find itself fighting perhaps the bloodiest war yet with the Arabs...

...Likud's image has not been improved by the denouement of the "Modai Affair," either...

...Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister David Levy, a man quick to see insults even when none is intended, leads the Sephardi members of the party (i.e...

...As the whole affair was played out in living color on the television news shows, Labor officials gleefully promised to replay the clips in campaign spots...

...Shamir refused, saying that his signature had been obtained by blackmail and therefore was not binding...

...Under Israel's proportional electoral system, no party ever has gained an absolute Parliamentary majority...

...This spring the rank and file did the choosing from among hundreds of would-be MPs...

...Looking back at the loss of three successive general elections, the party's Central Committee finally agreed it was time to rally the faithful...

...Grass roots democracy in action," as the process was billed, not only generated excellent publicity but also produced an important bonus: Peres won the number two spot, with many from his wing coming in close behind...

...The Sephardim have gained considerably in social status from their contribution to the party's electoral victories...

...Although the uphill Conservative campaign in Britain reminded the opposition here that it is too early to celebrate the outcome of the scheduled June 23 Knesset balloting, Labor leaders feel their prospects are better now than at any time since they lost power 15 years ago...

...Sharon is again offering tours (and cheap mortgages) in the West Bank and Gaza, but some Likud officials privately fear that the sightseeing might backfire this time...

...In immediate terms, Labor argues, the absence of peace is preventing Israel's linkage with multinational companies and its integration into the international economy, both vital for any modern country...

...Previously, like all other political formations in the country, it chose its Knesset nominees in the Israeli version of smoke-filled rooms...

...The Finance Minister pulled out the agreement and demanded that it be honored...

...Yet another discontented group consists of Likud supporters who were happy in the past to get easily available housing loans, but today are out of work and saddled with what have become suffocating mortgages...

...In that government crisis, Finance Minister Yitzchak Modai and three of his Knesset colleagues threatened to quit the party and ally themselves with Labor, unless they received a letter guaranteeing them their government and Knesset posts if Likud remained in control after the elections...

...Likud long ago succeeded in stamping Peres an incorrigible dove...

...Some of them, charging a breach of Likud rules, threatened to take the matter to court...

...Past experience shows that a daring military action, like the bombing of Iraq's nuclear reactor ordered by Begin, or a brutal terrorist attack, like the bus burning that killed a mother and her two children on the eve of the '88 election, can shift Israeli voters' preferences at the last moment...

...Many recently arrived doctors, engineers and teachers work as dishwashers, handymen or porters, and it is no longer rare to see Russian musicians playing on street corners for a living...

...Meanwhile, bitter infighting has erupted again in Likud...

...The former turned to Begin in 1977 because they resented their treatment by the predominantly Ashkenazi (or European) Labor Party...

...Commentators also stress that while Labor appears to have an edge over Likud at the moment, election day is many weeks away...

...those of Middle Eastern and North African origin...

...In addition, it created a hawk-dove balance that may attract a significant number of voters from parties further to the Left, yet seems likely to prevent the defection of most Right-leaning Laborites...

...The 3,000-member committee is divided into three main factions: the Shamir-Moshe Arens group (about 45 per cent), the Ariel Sharon group (17-18 per cent) and the David Levy group (about 33 per cent...

...As for the issue of peace with the Arabs, commentators here say there are some indications that Labor's two-tier view is beginning to get through...

...The pre-agreed arbitrator, one of Israel's most prominent attorneys, flatly rejected the Prime Minister's arguments and, in effect, accused him of acting in bad faith...

...True, despite all the griping, a major-ity of the new immigrants are slowly being absorbed into the country's economy...

...Unemployment in development towns, populated mostly by Sephardim and ex-Soviet immigrants, is approaching 25 per cent...

...Labor's current optimism is partly fueled by the contrast between its newfound harmony and Likud's resurgent strife...

...A similar situation exists in the case of the Russians...

...In a behind-the-scenes deal, the Shamir and the Sharon groups joined forces to largely eliminate the Levy supporters from the top 20 certain-to-be-elected spots on Likud's list...

...During the 1988 election campaign, Housing Minister Ariel Sharon's organized tours to new settlements were a huge publicity success...

...Upon completing his military service, every fourth development-town boy now joins the growing army of jobless...

...Modai has formed his own party and plans to run for the Knesset on a separate list...

...That pre-empted a bruising intra-party battle...

...They got the letter...

...Still, the sense that their enormous human potential is not being utilized has linked the frustration of many Russian newcomers with the bitterness of Sephardi old-timers...

...They are increasingly vulnerable to Labor's charge that their old jobs could have been maintained and new ones created, had Likud not wasted $10 billion on settlements and infrastructure in the disputed West Bank and Gaza territories...

...Thus it adopted a primary system for picking a chairman and for drawing up a list of Knesset candidates...

...But Shamir's default has given added credence to Labor's warnings that his latest promises to David Levy will not be honored—which have been accompanied by the suggestion that he and his followers should leave Likud and run on their own, too...

...Several days of intensive appeasement and ego-massaging culminated in Shamir capitulating to most of Levy's demands in a written agreement...

...But this angered the Prime Minister's closest associates, including Defense Minister Moshe Arens...

...Nevertheless, when the Likud slate was set at the February Central Committee meeting, Modai and his friends were excluded...

...The latter appeared to be natural opponents of Labor because of their aversion to anything associated with Socialism...

...Their votes elected Mena-chem Begin 15 years ago, and have kept Likud in power...

...The March 31 Parliamentary primaries have strengthened Labor as well...

...Indeed, one does not need a crystal ball or extensive public opinion surveys to see that many Israelis are fed up with Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir's Likud government...

...Its list of Knesset candidates was put together by a bloated Central Committee that met, as usual, in the cavernous main hall of Tel Aviv's Expo...

...So it is not surprising that Levy was outraged by the exclusion of his faction and threatened to walk out...

...Rabin's past military career and present political pronouncements make him a tough-minded middle-of-the-roader whom nobody can accuse of "being soft on the Arabs," or "insensitive to Israel's security needs...

...The step, unprecedented in Israeli politics, resulted last February 20 in registered Labor Party members voting to replace their chairman, Shimon Peres, with Yitzchak Rabin—former Prime Minister, Defense Minister, Armed Forces Chief of Staff during the 1967 Six Day War, and presumed surefire vote getter...

...But predictions remain risky...

...The selection of Rabin means, of course, that he will head Labor's slate in June as its candidate for Prime Minister...

...Eliahu Salpeter, a regular NL contributor, is a correspondent for Ha'aretz...