Shamir wants Labour to join coalition

Press, 20 December 1988, Page 8

Shamir wants Labour to join coalition

NZPA-Reuter Jerusalem The Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Shamir, wants the rival Labour Party to join a coalition united front as Israel faces diplomatic isolation with international approval of P.L.O. MiddleEast policy.

The Likud leader is trying to keep the Cabinet door open to Shimon Peres’ Labour Party but a deadline to form a new Government may slam it shut.

In the Occupied Terri-

tories, soldiers shot dead three Arab protesters and wounded at least 21 during a general strike as violence again flared in a year-old Palestinian uprising. Mr Shamir was due to complete a narrow coalition with Right-wing and religious parties yesterday, but delayed a key meeting until tonight. Political sources said Likud and Labour were still seriously trying to agree on a new unity Cabinet. By law, Mr Shamir has

until December 26 to form a Government. He could receive more time but, seven weeks after his Likud beat the centre-Left Labour in elections, the Prime Minister is under pressure to conclude coalition. The Labour and Social Affairs Minister, Moshe Katzav, a member of Likud, said Labour would be excluded from the next Government unless it compromised on some key issues, including the building of more Jewish

settlements in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

A draft agreement for a narrow coalition calls for 40 new settlements, opposed by Labour and the United States, Israel’s closest ally. Labour’s Energy Minister, Moshe Shahal, flatly rejected the settlement plan, saying, “We don’t think it’s right at any time. Certainly we think it is impossible in the existing political and diplomatic situation.”