Resign & Conquer

When David Ben-Gurion resigns as Prime Minister of Israel, his opponents are usually in trouble. Last week he quit for the seventh time, dashing off his letter of resignation after a brisk three-mile constitutional at a resort on the Sea of Galilee. He then cut the letter by 80% and bounced into an emergency Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, his hair so wildly askew that reporters agreed: "The old man's in a fighting mood." The letter itself was full of cloudy references to "the rule of law, the separation of powers . . . the call of my conscience." But everybody in Israel knew that Ben-Gurion's real purpose was to demolish the challenge of his ambitious Mapai Party rival, Pinhas La von, 56.

The celebrated Lavon affair itself was still under tight wraps. Outsiders could only surmise that it concerned an ill-fated Israeli espionage ring smashed in Cairo in 1954. Lavon, who was Defense Minister at the time, resigned for his role in the affair. But he was able to prove to a meeting of the Israeli Cabinet six weeks ago that forged papers had been used as part of the evidence that had forced him out of office. Though Ben-Gurion stormed from the room, the Cabinet cleared Lavon of any responsibility for the 1954 fiasco.

But to Ben-Gurion, Lavon's conduct in 1961 was far more dangerous than whatever he had or had not done in 1954. At stake was Ben-Gurion's plan to bypass aging party chieftains such as Lavon and hand over power one day to Mapai's bright young men, headed by Moshe Dayan, 45, the one-eyed general who was army chief in 1954 and is now Minister of Agriculture and Ben-Gurion's chosen political heir. By suddenly resigning, Ben-Gurion in effect forced the party to choose between himself and Lavon.

The issue was not long in doubt. After a few days of nervous consultations, the Mapai central committee voted 149 to 96 to boot Lavon out of his job as secretary-general of Histadrut, the powerful labor federation that he had used as his base of power. Happily, Ben-Gurion turned his thoughts to a new Cabinet that would probably include most of the now chas tened politicians who had dared oppose him on Lavon. The outcome represented something less than judicial fairness to Lavon, who may now bolt the party and try to fight Ben-Gurion on the stump at the next election. But it served as notice that the 74-year-old Prime Minister is not only running Israel, but controlling the line of succession as well.

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