Labor Party Panel Urges Likud Coalition Talks

The Central Committee of Foreign Minister Shimon Peres’ Labor Party recommended Thursday that its leaders officially negotiate with Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir on forming a new, broadly based Israeli coalition government.

After several hours of heated debate, the committee voted 690 in favor of the negotiations and 390 against. The vote was considered a key test of support for Peres, who had pleaded for national unity.

However, both Peres and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin, also a Labor leader, declared they are not prepared to link up with Shamir’s rightist Likud Party “at any price”--that is without some concessions--indicating that the effort to bring about a broad coalition remains unresolved.

Deadline Extended

President Chaim Herzog on Monday had asked Peres to call the Central Committee meeting to reconsider a vote last week by Labor’s 110-member executive bureau to narrowly reject similar talks with Shamir. Herzog also gave Shamir a second three-week period in which to form a government backed by at least 61 members of the 120-seat Knesset (Parliament).

Likud holds a slight edge over Labor after the Nov. 1 national elections, but the total is not enough to allow Shamir to form a government. He has been talking with right-wing and ultra-religious political parties, which hold the balance of power, about a narrow coalition.

Some political observers said Thursday that Herzog’s unprecedented intervention in the continuing deadlock would overcome Labor’s doubts about linking up again with Likud in a coalition similar to the one that has governed Israel since 1984. Peres said he would wait to be approached by Likud before resuming talks.

Other analysts said the attempt to form a broad coalition could fail because of the conditions raised by Labor leaders, however.

Peres and Rabin, for example, said they intend to enter a government on an equal footing with Likud. They want Middle East peace efforts to continue, and they call for a halt to new Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Also, in behind-the-scenes deal-making with smaller parties, Shamir and Likud leaders have been making compromises that could well be unacceptable to Labor.

Broad Versus Narrow

Shamir is said to favor another broad-based government in order to share responsibilities for national policies, while Industry and Trade Minister Ariel Sharon, another Likud leader, prefers a narrow coalition with the parties of the right.

Many of Labor’s younger members would prefer not to enter the government but instead to serve as a vocal opposition party with a distinctly different point of view on such crucial matters as supporting peace negotiations, the future of the occupied territories and banning Jewish settlements on the West Bank.

The Labor Party committee acted as the current Israeli government braced for a day of protest today in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and announced a curfew in Gaza to prevent violence. Today marks the first anniversary of the Palestinian uprising, known as the intifada, and all Palestinian commercial activity was shut Thursday to commemorate the occasion.

One Arab youth was killed by Israeli soldiers during a rock-throwing demonstration in the West Bank, a military spokesman announced. Yousef Mohammed Spaih, 17, was shot during a clash in the village of Kafr Rai, about 50 miles north of Jerusalem, while another Palestinian youth was wounded, military sources said.