Revolt in Labor Party Bars Israeli Coalition : Young Activists Reject Plan for Broad-Based Alliance With Likud Favored by Rabin, Peres

Israel’s center-left Labor Party rebelled against its leaders Wednesday, refusing to join a broad coalition government headed by rightist Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.

The stunning rejection by young party activists of Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin, both old-guard leaders, came against all expectations and threw Israel’s monthlong political crisis into a new state of flux.

In the aftermath of the 61-57 vote, Shamir’s office said he would immediately form a new government on the basis of agreements between his Likud Party and small right-wing and religious parties. Whether he has the necessary votes was not clear, however.

Fear of Widening Gap

In a major step Tuesday, Shamir had resumed talks with Labor in fear of a widening gap between Israeli Jews and those who live abroad, particularly in the United States, over the volatile issue of “Who is a Jew?” Both Peres and Rabin had reacted positively toward the proposal for the talks.

A broad coalition would have diluted the influence of four religious parties that otherwise would hold the balance of power in the Israeli Knesset, or Parliament.

Their price for supporting Likud, which won a plurality in elections last month, is Likud’s backing for the amendment of the so-called Law of Return, which defines Jewishness and eligibility for Israeli citizenship. Under their proposal, Reform and Conservative converts to Judaism who immigrate to Israel would not be immediately eligible for citizenship, as would Orthodox converts. American Jews, most of whom adhere to the Reform or Conservative strain of the faith, have been among the strongest critics of the proposed amendment.

For Peres, who is head of Labor and also a former prime minister, Wednesday’s meeting of Labor’s 120-member executive committee had been considered almost pro forma. By his and most analysts’ counts, Peres should have had the votes to win party consent to negotiate with Likud.

Addressing the executive committee Wednesday night in Tel Aviv, Peres, 65, said the party had no alternative but to resume links with Likud in a new government like the one that has ruled Israel for the past four years. Under the current coalition agreement, however, Peres and Shamir are equals and have alternated in the prime minister’s post. In a new Labor-Likud coalition, Labor would be the junior partner.

Rabin, 67 and also a former prime minister, spoke after Peres and reiterated his insistence that a narrow right-religious coalition would be disastrous for Israel’s future. Peres and Rabin were supported by nine of Labor’s 10 Cabinet ministers in the current government.

The committee’s vote came by secret ballot during Israel Radio’s main evening news broadcast in Hebrew and occurred as station analysts were patiently explaining how Peres would win with a narrow majority.

Nonplussed political observers quickly concluded that the surprise vote represented a major victory for Labor’s young Turks.

“We proved that we are the new party. The leaders can’t stand against the new generation,” committee member Avraham Burg said.

The insurgents, headed by party General Secretary Uzi Baram and in some cases a full generation younger than Peres and Rabin, believe that Labor’s future lies in clearly opposing right-wing policies, ranging from changes to the Law of Return to continued occupation of Arab territories ruled by Israel since the 1967 war.

Energy Minister Moshe Shahal, a Peres supporter, said: “We will serve the people from within the opposition. We must rebuild the party from within.”

Aftermath of Elections

Israel’s political impasse is the aftermath of Nov. 1 national elections to renew the 120-seat Knesset for a four-year term. Likud won 40 seats and Labor 39, both far short of the 61 needed for parliamentary control.

Alliance with the four religious parties would add 18 seats to Likud, and support of three extreme right-wing parties would add seven more. Likud itself is rightist, but it would be the most moderate element in a narrow coalition with the clerical and the hard-line right-wing parties.

One of the ultra-Orthodox parties, Agudat Israel, which holds five seats, wants most of all to amend the Law of Return and has said it would support either Likud or Labor on that basis.

Agudat Israel broke with Shamir on Tuesday when he seemed about to form a broad coalition, saying it would support Labor instead. But what Agudat Israel will do now is uncertain.

Some members of the Labor executive committee who voted against Peres on Wednesday said they think he should now try to build a narrow Labor-led coalition with himself as prime minister.

Major organizations of American Jews have lobbied unabashedly to check the influence of the ultra-Orthodox religious parties and seemed to have made their point when a concerned Shamir looked toward Labor on Tuesday. The religious parties say that only a relative handful of Diaspora Jews would be affected by the revised definitions they propose.

In reply, American Jews say the parties’ proposals are fraught with symbolism challenging their identity.

Representatives of two dozen major American Jewish organizations completed two days of lobbying here Wednesday and will return home today discouraged. They had hoped to convince Israeli politicians that a religious question is misplaced on a national political agenda. Rebuffed, they leave hoping that the proposed amendment to the Law of Return will fall short of a majority when, as now seems certain, it is proposed in the Knesset.

L.A. area Jews circulate petitions urging Israel not to change Law of Return. Part II, Page 3.