Israeli coalition seen as unavoidable

Press, 12 September 1984, Page 10

Israeli coalition seen as unavoidable

NZPA-Reuter Tel Aviv Israel has edged closer to the formation of a bi-parti-san Government after the Labour Party approved a proposed coalition with the Right-wing Likud bloc. Labour’s rank-and-file vented noisy opposition to the move, and there is internal dissatisfaction in Likud over the proposal. But the Likud leaders said that approval would be forthcoming after a party meeting today to debate the matter.

The Labour Party chairman, Shimon Peres, who will serve as Prime Minister for the first 25 months of the new Government’s tenure and then hand over the job to the outgoing Prime Minister, Yitzhak Shamir, said that he would seek a parliamentary vote of confidence for the coalition today. The two parties command at least 82 votes in the 120seat Parliament and are anticipating additional support from smaller parties. Labour’s supreme central

committee approved yesterday the unity accord by 394166 votes after a stormy four-hour session. Despite criticism of the agreement, speakers agreed in the end that there was no alternative but to form the coalition. Mr Peres told Labour Party delegates that the agreement he had reached with Mr Shamir was the best possible one, since neither side had won an outright majority in Parliament in the General Election in July.

“The only alternative is to either let the Likud remain in office or to go to new elections, and no-one knows what the results will be,” he said. In reply to a cry of, “how will you get us out of Lebanon?”, Mr Peres shouted back, “The Defence Minister in dur unity Government will be (a former Labour Prime Minister) Yitzhak Rabin and he will do it.” Most Labour critics asserted that Mr Peres had given the main economic

posts in the new Government to Likud, which had been the dominant party in the outgoing Government and was responsible for the nation’s severe financial troubles. Other critics opposed Mr Peres’s agreement to allow five or six more Jewish settlements on the occupied West Bank. In Likud Mr Shamir is coming under fire for agreeing to limit new Israeli settlements in the Arab territories that Israel has conquered.