Race for Begin job now down to two

Press, 2 September 1983, Page 6

Race for Begin job now down to two

NZPA-Reuter Tel Aviv A bitter struggle to succeed the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Menachem Begin, as leader of the shaky Right-wing coalition, was expected to end early this morning in a close election. A secret ballot of the Herat (freedom) Party’s 900member central committee will choose between the Foreign Minister, Mr Yitzhak Shamir, and the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr David Levy, for its nominee. He must then be accepted by the six other coalition partners. “Regardless of who wins we have agreed to co-oper-ate fully and work together in the next Government,” said Mr Shamir.

Mr Levy later agreed, saying that he thought the new Government would “resemble the present one very closely.” Herat Party sources said that leaders had tried unsuccessfully to persuade Mr Levy, aged 45, a selfeducated former construction worker, to yield to the more polished Mr Shamir, aged 67. They said that Mr Shamir had more support in the party’s upper echelons, but the Moroccan-born Mr Levy felt he commanded more votes among lower level officials, especially representatives of Israel’s less

privileged Sephardic (Oriental) Jews. “We expect the result to be very, very close,” said one party official.

He said that Mr Begin was not expected to participate in the vote. “The Prime Minister has not come out in favour of either candidate,” said the official. Mr Begin, the Prime Minister for six years, has held off making his resignation official by not notifying President Chaim Herzog of his decision, as required by Israeli law.

Cabinet colleagues said that he wanted to give his narty a chance to name a successor and to line up a

new coalition Government before he visited the President.

The President is required to authorise the person with the best chances of forming a Government to do so. The Trade and Commerce Minister, Mr Gideon Patt, said: "There’s no doubt the present coalition of parties will continue to govern without Prime Minister Begin, but with his basic policies.”

The Opposition Labour Party is keeping a low profile and newspapers said that it had held secret meetings with some members of Mr Begin’s coalition Government.