A Truly Revolutionary Idea

Labor and Likud agree to rotate the prime ministership

At long last, two months after the final votes were counted in the national elections, Israelis learned who their next Prime Minister would be. Or did they? In three days of tough bargaining last week, Labor Party Leader Shimon Peres agreed to alternate as Prime Minister with the Likud bloc's Yitzhak Shamir in a national unity government. For nearly four weeks, Peres had been trying to build a coalition with Shamir, but the Likud chieftain refused to accept Peres as the country's leader. Peres concluded that he could break the stalemate and form a new government only by sharing Israel's top post with Shamir. Said Peres after a two-hour meeting with Shamir on Friday: "We made quite a headway, yet our work is not complete."

Under the deal, one party leader would be Prime Minister for 25 months, the other would take over for the following 25 months. Labor and Likud planned to continue negotiating on Sunday over who would serve first, as well as how to assign the 24 posts in the new Cabinet. One of last week's proposals called for the positions to be divided evenly between the two camps, but exactly how remains in dispute. According to Peres' scenario, he would initially head the government, with a deputy prime ministership and the Foreign and Finance ministries going to rival Likud forces; the Defense Ministry would be given to Labor. Shamir, on the other hand, promised that if he is allowed to be Prime Minister first, Labor would have the courtesy of naming both the Foreign and Defense ministers. Shamir insisted, however, that if Peres went first, Likud should get those two key portfolios. Responded a leading Labor politician: "If that's what they are demanding, forget it."

Peres has problems within his own ranks as well. He has already promised the Defense post to Yitzhak Rabin, his bitter rival and Israel's Prime Minister from 1974 to 1977. Rabin still enjoys strong support within Labor; if Peres does not deliver on his pledge, Rabin could succeed in scuttling a national unity agreement. In addition Mapam, a leftist party that holds six of Labor's 44 seats in the 120-member Knesset, has threatened to quit the Labor alignment if a Labor-Likud government is formed.

Mapam leaders feel that Peres has made too many concessions to the right-wing Likud bloc and are upset by position papers, drafted jointly by Labor and Likud, to guide the unity government's policies. Initially, Peres had wanted the agreement to specify that any new Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank would have to be approved by two-thirds of the Cabinet, but he is now leaning toward a simple majority vote. "It was a very sad meeting," said Mapam Leader Victor Shentov, after Peres told him of the plan to share the prime ministership. "We have a historical mission to be a party that presents its views clearly to fight the growing extremism in this country." Shamir feels that Mapam's potential rebellion strengthens his case to be first in the Prime Minister rotation. If Mapam deserts Peres, Labor would be in an especially weak position, with only 38 seats in the Knesset, three fewer than Likud. "Why should we then give Peres the preference?" asked a Shamir aide.

Only once before have Israelis had a national unity government. In 1967, on the eve of the Six-Day War, Labor and other parties banded together in a coalition that existed until 1970. Given the level of bickering over the latest attempt at a united front, it is no wonder that both Peres and Shamir are so insistent about being Prime Minister first. Any Labor-Likud coalition may not last long enough to give whoever is second in line a chance at the top.