Rabin on Five Fronts

...For another, the international community was ready to put most of the blame on Israel for the slow pace of the negotiations...

...Finally, and most important, Arab countries with whom Israel had been establishing increasingly friendly political and economic ties—from Morocco to the Gulf States—demonstratively cooled off relations...

...Rabin seemed to be in a no-win situation: Reversing the expropriation would seem to confirm opposition contentions that he was moving toward a sellout to the Arabs...

...Press reports said he confessed that he had earlier tried to set fire to another church...

...Later, meeting with Arafat, the Foreign Minister obtained concessions that could help advance the implementation of the second stage of Palestinian autonomy...

...But that afternoon Israel had cause for some domestic soul-searching: A soldier who entered the (fortunately empty) Church of St...

...That obviously would give the opposition a veto over any peace agreement with Syria...

...Under a new law, starting with the next elections, due in autumn 1996, the Prime Minister will be chosen by direct vote, independent of the vote for Parliament...

...But, suddenly, rescue came from unexpected quarters...

...By and large, however, until it was revealed that Aloni's assailant was one of the major donors to ultra-Right causes in Israel, few Israelis realized the extent of such individuals' influence on the broader spectrum of organized Jewish life in America...

...taken for granted, particularly on issues involving relations with the Arabs...

...Unable to dissuade the Right-wing opposition from its course, Rabin announced that he was obliged to freeze his housing plan, and the Arab Democracy Party withdrew the no confidence motion...

...UNEASE IN ISRAEL Rabin on Five Fronts BY ELIAHU SALPETER TEL AVIV THE UGLY FACE of American Jewish Right-wing extremism briefly filled TV screens in this country on May 21, when Leftist Minister of Communications Shulamit Aloni was shown being punched while attending Israeli Day celebrations in New York...

...Anthony in an Arab section of Jaffa strafed and threw hand grenades at the altar and religious paintings...

...Rabin, meanwhile, has been having significant political troubles in his own camp...

...Likud was left facing the charge that its opportunism had forced the government to retreat on the crucial issue of Jerusalem...

...For one thing, negotiations with the PLO over the second stage of the autonomy agreement were at a particularly delicate point, and Arafat was under pressure from his hawks to break off talks...

...It was known, too, that a larger percentage of immigrants from the U.S...

...The main cause of the unease, though, seems to be a fading of the initial broad public enthusiasm for the Oslo Agreements...

...In addition, it has begun to sink in that Palestinian autonomy will ultimately lead to a Palestinian state next door, and that full peace with Syria will require the return of the entire Golan Heights to Syrian sovereignty...

...The difference now was that the Palestinians' outcries merged with several other factors...

...Fundamentalists here tend to be ultranationalists, yet directing violence against Christians was a distressing new development...

...While the Likud infighting spread, Peres and Rabin arrived at a truce...

...It was known that most of the Orthodox and the politically conservative American Jews were more militant than the Jewish community there as a whole...

...But observers in Jerusalem are optimistic that even if some of them do explode, they will not irreparably derail progress toward peace in the foreseeable future...

...A third is the considerable revulsion at the financial shenanigans in the primary contests, uncovered last year when a young leadership wrestled the trade unions away from old Labor Party stalwarts...

...The incident coincided with the first serious challenge to Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin's Center-Left coalition and its land-for-peace policy...

...they accused him of inexperience, shortsightedness, or plain stupidity...

...His government's narrow "blocking majority" in the Knesset depends on the votes of the Communists and the Arab Democracy Party...

...In the wake of subsequent bloody terrorist attacks on Jews by Hamas and other Palestinian opponents of an Israeli-Arab settlement, more and more Israelis are questioning the agreements' worth and PLO Chairman Yasir Arafat's ability to implement them...

...The settlers and the opposition Likud Party have been very successful in bringing to the surface latent fears that such eventualities could endanger security inside Israel proper...

...Rabin himself has found it impossible to stick to the original timetable because of fears that Israeli troop withdrawals from the West Bank would endanger the security of Jewish settlers there...

...than other parts of the world back the far Right here...

...Yet it also reflected the public's uneasiness with the government's policies, despite its success in reducing unemployment, restraining inflation and increasing the standard of living of most Israelis...

...The soldier's friends told journalists he had strong Right-wing views and recently had become a Chozer B'tshuva, the Jewish version of a "born again" believer...

...There are still many land mines on the road to a final settlement with the Palestinians and the Syrians...

...The Arab Democracy Party, whose abstention, if not backing, in the Knesset is essential to the government's survival, submitted a no confidence motion protesting the expropriations...

...Although police quickly disarmed him, he caused serious damage and ignited two days of violent demonstrations by Christian residents of the city...

...Perhaps worst of all, the old feud between Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres over the party leadership threatened to erupt once more...

...Indeed, Israelis used to quip that "some American Jews want us to fight for 'greater Israel' to the last Israeli soldier...

...on the other hand, sticking to the latest land seizure and creating a serious threat to the peace process would undermine his credibility with his own supporters...

...The government apparently underestimated these sentiments, which exist even among many who earnestly want peace...

...Should their optimism prove to bejustified, Rabin and the Labor Party may reach the 1996 elections in better shape than many, including this correspondent, predicted only a few weeks ago...

...At the same time other Laborites, shocked by revelations that many Knesset members had illegally used funds of the closely allied General Confederation of Labor to finance their races in the party primaries, called for the abolition of primaries altogether...

...Damascus also appeared to retreat on a few of its preliminary demands, raising hopes that a viable Golan agreement?and peace with Syria—was at least one step closer...

...Nevertheless, a number of Right-leaning members of his Labor Party have introduced legislation that would mandate a two-thirds Knesset majority for approval of territorial concessions on the Golan Heights...

...Officials in Jerusalem, and practically everyone throughout the nation who has not visited the United States of late, were surprised by the assault on Aloni...

...And there have been accounts documenting that a considerable portion of the financing for Right-wing activity, especially in West Bank settlements, has come from like-minded Jews in America...

...A second is the secular majority's re-sentmentof the increased influence gained by the Orthodox, notably the use of their political position to encroach on the liberties of nonobservant citizens...

...But friends of Peres, led by Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin, demanded that the next party convention adopt a resolution to repeal the law before it takes effect...

...The morning after the attack, several politicians and commentators urged the government to pay closer attention to what was happening among Israel's supporters in the Diaspora...

...He explained to the police that "the Holy Scriptures ordered [him] to destroy graven images...

...Netanyahu will not soon recover from the angry criticism of his numerous opponents in his party...

...IT IS NOT CLEAR whether a desire to counter the impact of the sentiments, or misjudgment of likely Arab and international reactions to new land expropriations, prompted Rabin to approve the takeover of 100 acres of Arab land in the Jerusalem area for the construction of Jewish housing...

...This wasn't the first time Israel assumed control of land that technically was in the public domain but for many decades was occupied by local Arabs...

...Rabin has indicated that he will run again in 1996, and if he wins, the new system will considerably strengthen his overall power as well as his clout within the party...

...Even Jordan, the friendliest of them all, warned Jerusalem of the negative consequences of the acquisition...

...Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu then declared that since toppling Rabin's government was a top priority, his party would vote for the Arab Democracy Party's motion...

...One reason is undoubtedly concern about the growing ideological polarization of Israeli society...

...It is difficult to point to a single cause of this spreading sense of unease...

...Neither belong to the coalition and their support cannot be Eliahu Salpeter, a regular NL contributor, is a correspondent for Ha'aretz...

...In part, the demand stemmed from mounting dissatisfaction with Rabin's political leadership—from resentment of his authoritarian attitude toward ministers and other party leaders...