Shamir, Peres Block Vote on Killing Lavi Jet Fighter

Faced with an apparent Cabinet majority for canceling the controversial Lavi jet fighter program, Israel’s two senior coalition leaders Sunday blocked a decisive vote for up to two more weeks.

The postponement of what has been billed as one of the most crucial economic and strategic decisions in Israel’s history followed extraordinary public intervention by the United States last week urging the Cabinet to cancel the project. Washington has bankrolled virtually all of the program’s $1.5-billion development cost to date.

However, Cabinet Secretary Eliakim Rubinstein said that Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, acting with the backing of Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who also holds the rank of deputy premier, exercised his prerogative not to call a vote after a six-hour ministerial debate.

“I think it was the prime minister’s feeling, shared by the vice prime minister, Mr. Peres, that on this kind of a major issue, there shouldn’t be a tight vote without exhausting all possible avenues in terms of trying to reach a consensus,” Rubinstein told reporters after the meeting.

“Today, simply, the situation was according to my estimation half against half,” Peres said. “What can we do? It happens in a democratic regime.”

Several other ministers contested Peres’ count, however, saying that there appeared to be a 13-11 majority in the Cabinet for adopting a joint resolution, put forward by Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Finance Minister Moshe Nissim, to discontinue the project.

“I’m really disappointed--I would not deny,” Rabin told Israel radio after the meeting. “I tend to believe that there was a slight majority in support of the proposal. . . . I think it was 13 to 11, but I’m not sure because the vote was not taken.”

Virtually all of Israel’s senior economic and defense officials have publicly opposed continuation of the Lavi program, arguing that if it proceeds, it will become an increasingly unbearable financial burden and will divert resources needed for other weapons development projects.

However, supporters, including both Shamir and Peres, contend that the program’s importance transcends the narrow considerations of any ministry. They see it as enhancing national prestige and stimulating the high-tech industrial base that is key to the country’s economic future.

Ministers on both sides of the argument say they are concerned that cancellation of the project will lead to at least temporary unemployment among thousands of aircraft workers and possibly to the emigration of at least some of them.

Crosses Party Lines

The issues cut across traditional party lines, as evidenced by the fact that both Rabin, an opponent, and Peres, a backer, represent the centrist Labor Alignment. Similarly, proponent Shamir and opponent Nissim are both members of the rightist Likud Bloc.

It is unclear what, exactly, the ministers hope to learn in the next two weeks that they do not know already. The future of the Lavi project has already been the subject of seven Cabinet debates in just the last four months.

Rubinstein said that the government will spend the time checking out other possible avenues for financing. He noted specifically that the Cabinet had discussed raising taxes. However, he said, “I don’t think there is anything specific at this point.”

Rabin insisted that nothing is likely to change in the next two weeks. “I think there is no escape from deciding against it,” he said.

Extensive U.S. Funding

Originally approved in 1980, the Lavi was conceived as a multiple-mission fighter-bomber to carry the Israeli air force into the next century. The United States made special aid concessions to fund virtually the entire development cost of the aircraft.

As project costs rose well beyond original estimates, however, support waned both in the United States and here. According to the latest forecasts, it will now cost $2.5 billion more for the Lavi than it would to buy a comparable fleet of American-made F-16 jets, which are considered similar in performance.

In a highly unusual move last Tuesday, the U.S. State Department made a public statement saying that the United States now believes “a decision by Israel to terminate the Lavi would be in the best interests of both our countries.”

Urging by Shultz

Secretary of State George P. Shultz reinforced the point by sending personal messages to several Israeli ministers last week urging them to drop the program.

While acknowledging Washington’s right to speak out on a project which it has funded, many Israeli officials were nevertheless clearly annoyed by what they saw as the heavy-handed manner in which it did so.

Asked Sunday whether the American intervention had made any impact in the Cabinet meeting, Rabin told Israel radio: “For me it was a third-rate factor, because my calculations were based only upon Israeli grounds.”