Breaking From The Hard Line

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir was virtually catatonic as he gazed at the TV screen, learning for the first time the results of exit polls that accurately predicted his Likud party's drubbing in national elections last week. The rival Labor Party took 44 of the 120 Knesset seats (vs. 39 in the previous parliament), Likud a pitiful 32 (vs. 40) -- its worst performance since the party's first outing, in 1973. The poor showing prompted Shamir to announce he would retire from politics soon, setting the stage for a fierce battle for the Likud leadership. One contender, Defense Minister Moshe Arens, bowed out of the fight, saying he too was quitting politics.

The results put Labor leader Yitzhak Rabin in the best position to form a coalition government. Rabin has said he wants a broad alignment, "not one , that represents the extreme left or the extreme right." His coalition will almost surely include Meretz, a new left-wing bloc of parties, which won 12 seats.

Labor's victory reflected a pervasive discontent with the Likud, which has led Israeli governments for all but two of the past 15 years. Economic stagnation brought unemployment to a record 11.5% in the first quarter of the year, which in turn slowed emigration from the former Soviet Union to a trickle. Worse, the Likud didn't seem to care. To many voters, the government's main interest seemed to be pouring money into Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.

Rabin promises to slow the growth of settlements, to increase the pace of peace talks with the Palestinians and to repair the damage Shamir's hawkish policies did to relations with the U.S. -- all easier said than done. Rabin also pledges to rearrange the nation's priorities, to focus on domestic problems rather than foreign policy issues. This emphasis on internal matters, though popular, is ironic. When Rabin was Prime Minister from 1974 to 1977, he was notorious for doing the opposite. (See related story on page 44.)