Israeli Leadership Switch Delayed for at Least 1 Day : Disagreement Between Labor and Likud Blocs Over Ministerial Appointments Cited; Compromise Sought

A scheduled exchange of posts between Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir was delayed for at least 24 hours Tuesday because of differences over appointments.

“There is no change,” Shamir, leader of the rightist Likud Bloc in the governing coalition of national unity, told reporters as he emerged from a 35-minute meeting with Peres, head of the centrist Labor Alignment.

Peres resigned last Friday to clear the way for the rotation of posts that the two parties agreed on when they formed the coalition 25 months ago. Shamir was to have been confirmed by the Knesset, or Parliament, on Tuesday to serve as prime minister for the next 25 months.

Compromise Sought

Labor and Likud representatives accused each other of bad faith in negotiating the final details of the changeover, leaving Peres in charge in a caretaker capacity until a compromise is found.

The government press office announced Tuesday morning that the Knesset session at which the change had been expected to be rubber-stamped was postponed until today. Israel television reported Tuesday night that there would be a further delay, but that could not be confirmed independently.

Labor’s secretary general, Uzi Baram, described the standoff as “a state of crisis” and said that if Shamir did not yield, the Labor leadership would meet Thursday to decide “what is the future of the government.”

However, Baram said he still hoped the differences could be bridged by today. And officials on both sides appeared confident that the rotation would be completed as planned.

Seeks to Name Own Ministers

The main sticking point is the future of Yitzhak Modai, a member of Likud and a former minister of finance and justice. Peres forced Modai to give up the finance portfolio and then forced him out of the Cabinet altogether in a showdown over the outspoken Modai’s criticism of the way Peres was running the government.

Shamir insists that he has the right to name his own ministers to the posts assigned his party under the coalition agreement, and he has promised to bring Modai back into the Cabinet. Labor is balking at the move, apparently in the hope of extracting concessions from Shamir on other appointments.

Baram told journalists at a press conference Tuesday that other elements of the dispute include Likud’s intention to give two of its senior officials responsibility for Soviet and American Jewish immigration. Labor contends that the assignments would undercut the authority of one of its ministers who is nominally in charge of all immigration matters.

Tour Ends This Winter

Also, Likud objects to Peres’ proposal to name his former Cabinet secretary, Yossi Beilin, as ambassador to the United States. Israel’s present ambassador in Washington, Meir Rosenne, is due to complete his tour this winter.

The national unity government grew out of the inconclusive elections of July, 1984, which left both Labor and Likud short of the number of parliamentary seats needed to form even a narrow coalition with some of the smaller parties.

It was originally expected to be a short-lived government, but under Peres it became the most popular government in a generation.

Shamir is expected to follow the same basic policies as his predecessor, but he is likely to adopt a tone decidedly less conciliatory than Peres toward Israel’s Arab neighbors.