Israeli poll trend: Right-wing gains

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33422, 2 January 1974, Page 13

Israeli poll trend: Right-wing gains

<.V.X. Press Association—Copyright)

JERUSALEM, January 1.

Unofficial results of Israel’s New Year’s Eve General Election show that Nirs Meir’s Labour Party is likely to remain in power, but with its majority so reduced that some of its officials have predicted that a fresh poll may be called within a vear.

Executives of s the party that has dominated Israeli politics for 25 years say that Mrs Meir may well have trouble in forming a new coalition Government to support her policy of offering concessions to the Arabs at the Geneva peace conference.

The State television network’s election analyst, Hanock Smith, forecasts 50 to 51 places for Labour, and 37 places for Likud in the Knesset (Parliament), in which there are 120 seats. Mrs Meir’s alignment occupied 56 seats in the last Knesset, compared with 32 by the Right-wing Opposition.

Mrs Meir’s campaign leader. Mr Abraham Ofer, speaking at party headquarters as the Prime Minister, who is 75, chainsmoked and watched the returns on television, conceded that the alignment needed 50 seats to form even a weak coalition.

Unofficial computer projections broadcast by the State’s radio and television network estimate that Mrs Meir’s Socialist movement has fallen about 7 per cent below its polling strength at the last election in 1969.

Projections from between 735 and 4104 polling stations indicate that support for the Right-wing Opposition bloc, which is campaigning for tougher peace terms with the Arabs, has increased 2.5 per cent.

Support for the National [Religious Party, the traditional partner in all of Israel’s previous seven coalition Governments, has apparently fallen by about 1 per cent. Political commentators say that the voting trend means that for the first time in its 25-year history of crisis with the Arabs, Israel has two main political parties—a challenge to the traditional i Socialist leadership of the Jewish State.

i “We are due for a period of unstable government in [lsrael,” one party official at ;Mrs Meir’s Tel Aviv head- ' quarters commented. An unstable Israeli Government may well encourage the Arab leaders to seek stiffer terms, and to strengthen their demands for | the return of war-won Arab i land at the Middle East conference in Geneva. Weakness or dissent among Israel’s leadership might also prompt the Arabs [to intensify their military activity along the troubled ; cease-fire lines in Egypt and Syria, where Israeli forces have been on the alert since ■the Geneva conference opened 11 days ago. Full alert The Israeli military machine was on maximum alert for election day, in case there was a surprise Arab attack, but only the usual skirmishes were reported. The gloom is almost visible at the Labour Party’s headquarters, where Mr Ofer said: j“I do not rule out the possibility of another election in [the coming year.” Mrs Meir 'made no comment.

At the headquarters ofi Likud (Unity), the newlyformed alignment of Rightist parties led by the one-time Jewish terrorist, Mr Menahem Begin, the mood fell short of victorious: MajorGeneral Ariel Sharon, the “star” of the Unity bloc and hero of the “Yom Kippur” war for his tank invasion of Egypt, telephoned from the Suez Canal Zone to say that he was disappointed that Mrs Meir’s Government had not been ousted.

The secretary-general of the Socialist alignment, Mr Aharon Yadlin, insisted that Mrs Meir’s political machine had received enough support at the polls to establish a firm coalition with its religious partners and the two small Arab parties; but he admitted that Labour would prefer another round of voting to inviting members of the Unity Party into the Cabinet. The rival movements disagree deeply on relinquishing territory won in the 1967 war in return for a peace pact with the Arabs. Mrs Meir’s Government, which had hoped for a strong mandate to negotiate at Geneva, has made it clear that it is prepared to return much of the occupied West Bank of the River Jordan and the Egyptian Sinai Desert. Likud describes this policy as “a surrender which could bring much of Israel back in the range of Arab guns.” The Rightists have not spelled out how much Arab land they would trade for peace.

With more than one-fourth of the total votes counted, projections showed the. following results for the principal parties: Labour, a drop from 56 to 51 seats; Likud, an increase from 32 to 38; Rakach, an increase from 3 to 4; National Religious Party, a drop from 12 to 11; Arab lists affiliated to Labour, a drop from 4 to 3; Independent Liberals, 4 (unchanged).

The official final results will not be known until late in the week.