Israeli Parties Trade Charges as Vote Nears : Politics: The outcome of no-confidence move against Shamir’s government is seen as too close to call.

Israel’s Likud and Labor parties, embittered respondents in an ugly divorce, blamed each other Wednesday for the break-up of the coalition government and prepared for today’s preliminary decision on who gets the house.

This morning, the 120 members of the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, are scheduled to vote on a Labor-led no-confidence motion against the rump government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, the Likud leader.

The balance of forces appears to be razor-thin, and the decision rests with one or two small ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties, excluding the possibility of a last-minute coalition reconciliation, which Israeli political analysts say would take “a miracle” that neither side wants.

If today’s vote goes against Shamir, he will be left as head of a caretaker government, beginning a process in which both he and Labor leader Shimon Peres may be offered the opportunity to put together a ruling majority. If Shamir and his loyalists defeat the no-confidence motion, he will remain prime minister with a fragile majority.

Tuesday’s collapse of the 15-month-old coalition left bitter feelings throughout Israel’s political family. Editorialized Yediot Aharonot, the country’s largest newspaper: “One cannot ignore the damage this whole ugly affair is doing to the foundations of democracy in Israel.” The paper noted that instead of mending fences, “everyone is drawing battle lines and making tough statements.”

One of the roughest came from Yigal Bibi, a member of Parliament from the National Religious Party, which was aligned with Likud in the now-split coalition.

“We should vote no confidence in Shamir,” Bibi told the Jerusalem Post. “He has no spine; he is not honest. He is an indifferent man with no trace of tradition.”

Several Likud Party members called on the prime minister to resign in order to strengthen his party’s hand in the no-confidence vote and the political struggle that will follow. Shamir had rejected the suggestion late Tuesday after his firing of Peres as deputy prime minister and finance minister led to the resignation of all Labor ministers in the Cabinet and the collapse of the coalition.

Shamir himself led the attack on Labor on Wednesday. He blamed the break-up on Labor’s insistence for a positive response to an American-proposed formula for getting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks under way. He insists the formula would invite Palestine Liberation Organization influence and raise questions about the legitimacy of Jerusalem as the indivisible and sovereign capital of Israel. And he took another shot at American mediation in the proposed talks, designed to unstick his own stalled peace plan.

In a statement to Likud’s caucus in Parliament, the prime minister said: “Our initiative (the May, 1989, peace plan) clearly intended to take the PLO out of the arena. But the State Department put all its energy into focusing on the PLO, and the Labor Party said nothing would move without the PLO.”

After years of refusal to do so, the United States began limited talks with the PLO after its leader, Yasser Arafat, announced in late 1988 that he accepted the existence of Israel and opposed the use of terrorism. Israel, however, refuses to negotiate with the PLO, which it officially regards as an unrepentant terrorist organization.

“Arab residents of Jerusalem will not participate in any form in elections for autonomy because this would endanger Jerusalem’s status and her future as the capital of Israel,” Shamir continued. “On this issue we will not negotiate a compromise. The heart of all of us and our consciences will not allow it.”

Peres, whose party agrees that Jerusalem should remain undivided and Israeli, would endorse participation by East Jerusalem Palestinians in electing representatives for peace talks. He told Israel Radio, “There won’t be peace so long as Shamir heads this government.”

While the leaders restated their positions on peace, the fundamental issue that broke up the coalition, Likud and Labor politicians worked hard on the more immediate problem, the no-confidence vote. Top political operatives called on the rabbis who guide the religious parties.

With the swing votes in their hands, the religious leaders were expected to base their allegiance in part on demands they have made in past government-building efforts here: more money for religious schools, stricter observance of Jewish holidays and influential posts in government to carry out their favored programs.

The Knesset test of Shamir’s government was assured for this morning when Labor attempts to hold it Wednesday were blocked. Labor supporters tried that avenue in a bid to keep Labor ministers in a caretaker government if Shamir loses the vote.

The ministers quit Tuesday, but the resignations were not effective for 48 hours. A successful no-confidence vote on Wednesday would have left them in a transitional regime.