Democratic Palestine : 6 (ص 25)
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- Democratic Palestine : 6 (ص 25)
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The Prospects of the Israeli
‘National Unity Government’
The Israeli elections have been in
the international focus for a period of
time. The political observers have been
closely following the developments of
the elections. However the outcome was
not decisively in favour of either the
Likud or the Labour parties. This led to
the formation of the «national unity gov-
ernment» which has numerous ques-
tions around it. The dominant theme is
not what the new government can, or is
going to do, but rather what it will not be
able to do.
Before the results of the elections to
the 11th session of the Knesset became
known, Peres and his Labour Party were
opposed to the idea of a «national unity
government». Their opposition was not
in principle based on essential con-
tradictions or «historical differences»
with the Likud.But rather stemmed from
the Labour Party's evaluation of such a
government's inability to overcome the
internal Israeli crisis. Hence, Peres
labelled such a government as one of
«national paralysis». Now that the
Labour Party leadership have come to
favour such government lest they should
again have to go to the polls without any
guarantees of better results. Peres
began to call it a «non-agreement» gov-
ernment. So, one is inclined to put the
following question to Peres; can a gov-
ernment of «non-agreement»
accomplish what - in his opinion - «the
national paralysis government» could
not? What has changed and in whose
favour? How will this affect the govern-
ment's political course for the period it is
expected to hold?
In his confidence-vote address at
the Knesset, Shimon Peres did not
address the main problems, which his
government was supposed to deal with.
He was rather general and unclear in
terms of these problems, whereas the
speeches of the Likud leaders gave the
impression that the «nonagreement
government» was practically Likud both
in essence and perspective. Peres
pointed out that Labour and Likud had
agreed on three main issues, namely
tackling the economic situation, ending
Shami
israel’s involvement in Lebanon, and
making efforts to carry on with the
«peace process in the Middle East».
Meanwhile, General Ariel Sharon in his
speech attacked the Labour Party and
demanded further concessions con-
cerning settlements in the occupied ter-
ritories. In his speech, Shamir declared
«The land of Israel shall never be the
object of any bargaining or tolerate any
foreign sovereignty».
Apart from the two major parties,
Labour and Likud, six other small parties
shared the government: four are further
to the right than Labour and hence
closer to the Likud, and two are closer to
the Labour. On the other hand, obser-
vers have noted that although the par-
ties represented in Peres’s government
account for 96 seats in the Knesset, only
89 voted for it. This shows how vulnera-
ble Peres's premiership is going to be.
Especially if we take into account that he
failed to enlist the unanimous support of
his own party. In fact, the Labour's Cent-
ral Committee was divided in this
respect, with 394 members voting for
and 66 against the government.
Furthermore, it seems that the con-
cessions made by Peres to bring this
government about were much more
than what had been declared. In addition
to the fact that Labour and the Likud
agreed to alternate the premiership and
equally share the portofilos, Peres
retreated from giving the Ministry of
Religious Affairs to the Mafdal as he
had promised. Instead, both Joseph
Bourg of the Mafdal and Rabbi Yitzhak
Biretz from the Spherdi Torah Guar-
dians (SHOS) were nominated ministers
without portofilos. More serious still is
that Peres and Shamir (as reported by
some news agencies) endorsed a plan
providing for establishing 27 new settle-
ments in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
during the next four years. Five of which
are to be constructed during the next
year, that is during Peres’s term.
~ Commenting on Peres heading the
new Israeli government, the French «Le
Monde» remarked, «It is the first time
that a Labour Party member hoids the
leadership position without being unani-
mously backed by the party. If Peres
succeeds in his job, then he would have
given his party an unprecedented shift to
the right. If he fails, he will further aggra-
vate the confusion and identity crisis
prevailing in the Labour Party». But what
job can Peres do as a head of the Israeli
government? The answer comes from
«Al-Hamishmar», organ of the Mapam,
which has pulled out from the Mirach,
commenting on Peres's government by
saying: «It is a big size caricature dis-
playing a _two-headed race-horse
mounted by the 25 strong national unity
government, some of whom feverishly
spurring the horse to go forward and the
others trying hard to drag it backwards».
Proceeding to speak of Peres’s
«job», Al Hamishmar says: «The job
Shimon Peres will have to do during his
term in office will not exactly be that of a
prime minister, but rather that of a mas-
ter of ceremonies or a head of a discus-
sion group. He will have to guide discus- »
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