Uproar over a Walkout

Weizman quits as Defense Minister and precipitates Begin's worst crisis

It was hardly the first political crisis to confront Menachem Begin in three turbulent years in office, but it was unquestionably the most precarious and acrimonious. Jolted by the surprise resignation of Defense Minister Ezer Weizman, the Israeli Prime Minister found himself under unprecedented attack from both the left and right factions of his conservative Likud coalition. His room for maneuver was so restricted he was not even able to reshuffle his Cabinet and replace Weizman for fear of provoking a lethal defection by one side or the other. It appeared that the only way to keep his government from capsizing might be to assume the Defense Ministry portfolio himself. Worst of all, the crisis further jeopardized the already stalled negotiations with Egypt over Palestinian autonomy--though at week's end there was talk of inviting Anwar Sadat to Israel for talks on the issue.

Even by Israel's freewheeling political standards, Weizman's resignation was a ferocious spectacle. Weizman had run the campaign that catapulted Begin to power; now he accused Begin of "leadership that sows only despondency" and characterized Begin's government as "the deceased." Outraged by his lieutenant's disloyalty, Begin tartly recalled that Weizman had once admitted his own worst enemy was his "big mouth" and accused him of trying "to depose me--both openly as well as by intrigue." Concluded Weizman: "This whole affair has got out of hand with overflow and overkill."

Begin, 67, and Weizman, 56, had long differed in their approach on a number of major issues, particularly the question of a Middle East peace settlement and the future of the Israeli-occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza. Weizman, a Haifa-born Sabra who rose from fighter pilot to commander of the air force, had been a moderate in a Cabinet of hawks. Of late he had made no secret of his frustration over what he saw as Begin's shortsighted failure to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt to establish a permanent peace in the region.

His decision to quit was precipitated in the end by a relatively minor budgetary dispute in which, ironically, moderate and hawk exchanged roles. Weizman was angered that Finance Minister Yigal Hurvitz, a hard-liner who had voted against the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, was advocating a 10% reduction in Israel's military spending. Weizman asserted that he could not be responsible for security if the cuts were approved. When he learned that the cuts would be recommended anyway, he decided to hand in his resignation. He stopped off at Begin's office in Jerusalem before the customary Sunday Cabinet meeting and told the Prime Minister of his intention. At the Cabinet session, Weizman delivered a brief statement castigating his Cabinet colleagues for their ineffectiveness. "Shalom," concluded Weizman, and stalked from the room.

In his formal letter of resignation, delivered to Begin the next day, Weizman was even more critical. "In the matter of peace with Egypt," he wrote, "my heart is not at one with the government's policy. The road leading to the strengthening and consolidation of peace is indeed wide and open, but it is not being used. And here, Mr. Prime Minister, was the rare opportunity that you missed."

Incensed, Begin replied with a sarcastic letter. "A shocking frivolity has guided you through a desire to appear in certain foreign countries as the only 'pursuer of peace' in a government composed of peace saboteurs," he wrote. "In this attempt to undermine me, you again failed completely. You were given, Mr. Defense Minister, a rare opportunity, but you have abandoned it out of ambition that is mind-numbing." Privately, Begin professed astonishment at Weizman's resignation. "I've told all my friends I'm not going to stay in politics after I'm 70," he told aides. "Ezer is still young. He could have been Prime Minister one day. Why did he have to push so hard and do it in such a brutal way?"

Weizman will almost certainly do penance in the political wilderness, at least for a while. Although Begin's aides accused the Defense Minister of attempting to provoke a palace revolt, no one in the Cabinet or Weizman's Herut Party followed him out the door. Weizman denied any such intention, but he told TIME last week that he would not be unhappy to see Begin's government collapse. In fact, the timing of his departure could hardly have been calculated to do more damage to Begin's grip on power. Beset by an annual inflation rate of 122%, blamed by the Egyptians for the deadlock in the Palestinian autonomy negotiations, and burdened by incessant squabbling within his fractious Cabinet coalition, Begin's government had grown precariously weak.

Nothing demonstrated that so much as the futility of Begin's attempts to replace Weizman in the Israeli Cabinet's second most important and sensitive post. He first asked Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir to move over to Defense. The hawkish Shamir, 64, a Polish emigrant like Begin, was Speaker of the Knesset before replacing Moshe Dayan as Foreign Minister two months ago. To replace Shamir, Begin tapped Energy Minister Yitzhak Moda'i, 55, a leader of the Liberal Party, which together with Herut forms the backbone of the Likud governing coalition. Both men abstained on the Knesset vote ratifying the Camp David accords.

The proposed Cabinet reshuffle backfired. Two partners in the coalition, the Democratic Movement and the National Religious Party, objected both to Begin's failure to consult them in advance and to the selection of Moda'i, who did little to impress his critics when he informed them in a meeting that "I'm 90% qualified." At the same time, Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon, a former general and the leading hard-line proponent of Israel's incendiary settlements policy in the West Bank, threatened to resign if he did not get the Defense Ministry himself. Begin explained to Sharon, a fellow Herut Party member, that he personally preferred him, but the opposition from the other parties ruled out his appointment.

Sharon's resignation by itself would not cause Begin's government to collapse, though it would risk trimming his majority to a mere two votes in the 120-member Knesset. On the other hand, if the whole six-member Democratic Movement walked out--in opposition to the appointment of either Moda'i or Sharon --Begin would almost certainly be forced to call new elections. To avert that prospect, the Prime Minister was expected to leave Shamir and Moda'i in place and possibly take over the Defense portfolio himself.

In Egypt, Weizman's resignation and the squabbling over a successor were seen as possible harbingers of early elections that could produce a more moderate Israeli government. Weizman enjoyed a close relationship with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. But he had long been recognized as a lonely voice of moderation in the Cabinet, unable to prevent Begin from pursuing the policies that the Egyptians argue have brought the Palestinian autonomy talks to a standstill.

Begin's woes, and the possibility of his government's collapse, may have accounted for Sadat's equanimity last week as the May 26 target date for a Palestinian autonomy agreement came and went, with no such accord in sight. Earlier he had tthreatened to "raise hell" with Begin on that date if the deadline was not respected. But when the time came, Sadat gave every indication of being willing to wait a little longer for a possible resolution of the autonomy issue. No stranger to political troubles of his own, Sadat apparently was not about to gloat publicly over the problems of his prickly partner in the peace process.

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