Peres backs down from Begin attack

Press, 15 August 1980, Page 6

Peres backs down from Begin attack

NZPA-Reuter Jerusalem The Prime Minister of Israel (Mr Menachem Begin) steered his shaky coalition successfully through a heated special session of Parliament yesterday after the Opposition Labour Party backed off from a new effort to overthrow him.

; The Labour Party leader, Shimon Peres, taunted Mr Begin over the increasingly visible strains within his Cabinet, but he refrained from laying down the censure motion that some Labour members had urged. The Knesset (Parliament) had been called back from its summer recess for a oneday session to approve the appointment of a new Justice Minister, Moshe Nissim. This vzas approved by a comfortable 56-30 vote margin. The need for the appointment itself reflected some of Mr Begin’s difficulties since it was caused indirectly by defections from his coalition.

By selecting Mr Nissim, a liberal. Mr Begin had hoped to find a way through some of the coalition rivalries that have obliged him to leave the post of Defence Minister vacant for two months. So far these rivalries have

not been stilled. Mr Begin himself handles the Defence Ministry one day a week. Mr Peres poured scorn on the coalition wrangling, which he said had reduced Israel to having a Defence Minister who operated “only bn Thursdays.” To shouts of anger in the Knesset, Mr Peres mocked the appointment of Mr Nissim, whom he described as “not the greatest legal mind around.” In reply, Mr Begin seized upon the strains inside the Labour Party. The Prime Minister said that after his row at the week-end with the Agriculture Minister (Mr Ariel Sharon), the Minister had at least apologised. But, Mr Begin said, Mr Peres had received no apology for attacks made on him by his rival for the party leadership, the former Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin.

By failing to mount a noconfidence motion at the special session, the Labour Party may not now have an opportunity to vote the Begin Government out of office until next November when the Knesset reconvenes. . ■ _ ... ... 4

Several reasons were suggested for the Opposition's failure to mount its attack

yesterday. One was that the recall during the last few days of some eight coalition members from abroad made the chances of an opposition success remote.

Another theory advanced by some party sources was that the Labour leadership, for all its taunts about coalition disarray, was in no great state of unity itself. The intensifying struggle for leadership between Mr Peres and Mr Rabin has left the party in. a less than ideal state to face an election, even though opinion polls say Labour would overwhelming!v win. On paper, Mr Begin’s coalition still can muster 61 members of the 120-seat Knesset. Further defections in coming months could leave him open to defeat by censure motion in November.

Normally the incumbent Prime Minister stays on for about six months as head of a caretaker government after elections are called. Failing a parliamentary defeat, Mr Begin is not obliged to face the voters until November next year. He has lately put it about that he has every intention of staying in office till then.