Amid Heckling, Shamir’s Party OKs Coalition

As opponents of his plan to join forces with the Labor Party jeered his every word, Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir promised his rightist Likud Party on Tuesday that he will use the broadly based government to resist foreign pressure to come to terms with the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Despite the heckling and passionate speeches against the accord, 55% of the party members voted to approve the alliance with center-left Labor early this morning. Labor is expected to confirm its participation in the coalition later today.

Shouting to Delegates

“The battle today is against the very establishment of a Palestinian state,” Shamir shouted to about 1,500 delegates gathered to consider the coalition agreement.

“It is time to present a united front against all factors endangering our position. What we are talking about is an international effort to push us within a year or two back to 1967 borders,” the bantam-sized, white-haired leader added, referring to Israel’s frontiers before the conquests of the Six-Day War.

Since that war, Israel has occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip, territory that the PLO presumably had in mind when it declared an independent Palestinian state last month.

“We must do everything to say to the Americans, the Soviet Union, Europe and the Arabs that in this difficult hour, the people of Israel are united in forming one government,” Shamir continued, amidst loud boos.

Shamir’s statements gave the clearest reasons yet as to why he pressed for Labor’s entry into government, even to the point of giving up control of the powerful Finance Committee in the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, to get it.

Last week, the United States, Israel’s closest and most generous ally, broke a 13-year ban on talks with the PLO. The move shocked many Israelis, and their government was put on the defensive and spoke with no single, strong voice. Shamir moved to seal a deal with his arch rivals in Labor.

Explained Shamir’s spokesman and aide, Avi Pazner: “The prime minister believes there is an attempt to force Israel into positions that do not benefit the country, and there is a definite possibility we are going to witness more pressure.”

Pazner said that now that a government is falling into place, Jerusalem will not remain on the defensive for long.

Making Voice Heard

“When we feel that what the United States does is not in our interest, we know how to make our voice heard,” he said.

The Likud gathering was held in a basketball arena in Tel Aviv. From the crowd noise at one point, it sounded as if the referee had made an especially bad call. “This isn’t a Central Committee--it’s a circus,” Shamir complained.

Likud superhawks loudly predicted that Shamir’s deal with Labor would send Israel down the road to diplomatic and territorial losses.

“In Labor, they say they must speak to the PLO. Dear friends, this is not our position,” Ariel Sharon, a former general and fiery Likud minister, told the meeting.

In answer to perceptions that the alliance might give backbone to future Israeli diplomatic moves, Sharon answered: “With whom does one enter a struggle? Are you able to go into a struggle like this with a broken reed?”

Sharon’s hopes of becoming defense minister were dashed by the coalition accord. Under the agreement, that post stays with Labor’s Yitzhak Rabin.

Despite the implications of opposition outbursts, there seemed little in the Likud-Labor agreement to cause concern among hard-liners. On foreign policy, the accord was almost identical to the one that was a basis of the just-ending, four-year Likud-Labor coalition government: A continuing ban on talks with the PLO, opposition to creation of a Palestinian state and devotion to the 1978 Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt, which set out guidelines for an ill-defined autonomy for Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The coalition agreement also cost Likud its plans to expand rapidly the number of settlements in the occupied territories. In a compromise, it agreed to restrict to eight the number of new settlements to be built in the first year of the government’s life.

Still, that part of the agreement drew criticism from the U.S. State Department on Tuesday. Asked at a news briefing in Washington to comment on the settlement issue, department spokeswoman Phyllis Oakley said, according to wire service reports: “Our position . . . is (that) the settlements are not helpful in moving toward a comprehensive peace settlement, which we all desire.”

Although the deal renews the option of talking peace with neighboring Jordan, Labor’s proposal for exchanging occupied land for peace is left out entirely. In so doing, the agreement eliminates a key pillar of Labor’s foreign policy.

Alone on the Stage

In addition, Shamir, who is in a position to hold power for four years, need not share the international stage with Labor leader Shimon Peres, the outgoing foreign minister, who is to be finance minister in the new government.

Peres may have some say in foreign policy matters by way of membership in a new four-member advisory group, but his exit from the Foreign Ministry eliminates a public irritant for Shamir.

“Peres can no longer fly off to London and give his views on peace,” said David Zucker, a member of the leftist Citizens Rights Movement.

Also, Peres is badly outnumbered among the four elite Cabinet members. The others--Shamir, Likud’s Moshe Arens, who is expected to be tapped as foreign minister, and Rabin, the defense minister--are all hard-liners.

“It’s three to one against Peres,” said Labor official Yaacov Tzur.

Some of the shouting at the Likud meeting was not about foreign affairs but rather about concessions to Labor of important economic posts. Labor controls not only the Finance Ministry but also the Knesset Finance Committee, which channels funds to government ministries and programs.

“We have a saying here that the finance minister is a second prime minister,” chortled Tzur. “The other ministries are stepchildren.”

One of the leaders of the charge against Shamir was Yitzhak Modai, a Likud member who had set his sights on the Finance Ministry.

Not present at the arena but with plenty of complaints voiced earlier were religious parties who are being deprived of power and influence in government by the Likud-Labor alliance.

Ministries, Money Promised

Just a few days ago, it seemed that Likud would try to forge a coalition without Labor and that these parties held the balance of power. To win their loyalty, Shamir promised them numerous ministries, money for their schools and hospitals and even passage of a law to define who is truly Jewish.

All this has evaporated, and leaders of the religious parties are resentful, accusing Shamir of breaking promises to them. Within this resentment lies a danger for Likud. Many religious voters share basic rightist views with the party; their alienation threatens to undermine Likud in future elections.

“We will try to make up with them,” said Pazner, Shamir’s spokesman.