Israelis await poll

Press, 30 December 1976, Page 5

Israelis await poll

NZPA Tel Aviv For the first time for 28 years, Israel is approaching a General Election without knowing in advance who will win.

For the Israelis, having a handful of realistic contenders for the Prime Ministership, instead of a handpicked appointee of the all-powerful Socialist Labour Party, is a refreshing change.

The best bet is that Mr Yitzhak Rabin will continue to rule, but he cannot, be certain of that, and he admits that Labour is facing one of the toughest campaigns in its history.

Within the party, Mr Rabin faces challenges before the mid-May polling from his Defence Minister (Mr Shimon Peres) and from the former Foreign Minister, Mr Abba Eban. Labour’s candidate, to be

chosen at a conference in February, will be opposed by the veteran Right-wing leader, Mr Menahem Begin, of the Likud bloc, and the archaeologist, Mr Yigael Yadin, leading a newly-formed Social-Democrat type of party. Al! four men, in the view of political analysts, have at least an outside chance of taking over the office. Mr Rabin won when Mrs Golda Meir resigned in June. 1974. Mr Rabin has struggled to reform the economy and uproot corruption, and has restored the Israeli Army to the strength and morale it enjoyed before the disastrous 1973 Middle East war.

Yet he has failed to capture the public’s imagination, and the former military Chief of Staff and the Ambassador to Washington has neglected his party and bickered with many of his Cabinet colleagues.