After Golda?

Will she or won't she? The most tantalizing question about the internal politics of Israel is whether Premier Golda Meir, 74, intends to continue in office after the end of her four-year term in November, 1972. During the past six months, Mrs. Meir has dropped several hints in public that she wants to retire. However, no one took her seriously until a week or so ago, when she bluntly told several confidants in the Labor Party that she really is going to step down. One result of this decision has been the intensification of the feud between two of her potential successors: Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, 57, and Deputy Premier Yigal Allon, 54.

The unsubtle struggle between the two Cabinet ministers--both of them ex-generals--has mainly centered on security matters and Arab affairs. Dayan has taken a hard line on the prospect of Israel's making peace with Jordan, by repeatedly insisting that the occupied West Bank must remain under Israeli control. The more dovish Allon has argued that a settlement with King Hussein is worth some concessions in sovereignty. Last July, Dayan led the fight against returning two border villages to their dispossessed Christian Arab residents, thereby dooming Allen's plan for repatriation. Following the Munich murder of eleven Israeli athletes and coaches by Arab terrorists, Dayan and Allon each blamed the other for the failure of security arrangements to protect the nation's Olympic team.

The quarrel extends to matters of considerably less importance. At a recent Cabinet meeting, they clashed over a proposal to put Allon in charge of a seemingly innocuous government information program. Earlier Dayan bridled at the choice of ex-Chief of Staff Haim Bar-Lev (rather than Dayan himself) to write an article on Israel's military defense for next year's official 25th anniversary album.

So far, Mrs. Meir has taken no side in the Dayan-Allon spat. The man who actually stands the best chance to succeed her is Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir, the behind-the-scenes boss and kingmaker of the Labor Party. Sapir, 65, has frequently said that he does not want the job, although it is his for the asking. His refusal to accept the premiership might well lead to an open battle between Dayan and Allon that would threaten Israel's governing coalition, or to the choice of a candidate not to Mrs. Meir's liking--such as Foreign Minister Abba Eban. Either circumstance might convince her that she should stay in office for a while longer.

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