Likud Blames U.S. for Shamir’s Downfall : Israel: Party leaders charge that pressure from Washington undermined the prime minister.

In offices of Likud Party leaders, the losers’ locker rooms of this week’s political contest, there was plenty of blame being spread around for the apparent loss of the prime minister’s post to the Labor Party, and not a little of it Wednesday was placed on the Bush Administration.

In the view of the Likud faithful, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir was undermined by unrelenting U.S. pressure not only to promote peace talks beyond the range of his own policies but also on a number of other touchy subjects. If President Bush was not trying to push Shamir out, he was a major contributor to his downfall, Likud officials charged.

“The criticism from Washington kept piling up. No matter what we did, it was wrong,” said government spokesman Yossi Olmert. “There was an air of constant displeasure in Washington that hurt Shamir at home.”

There has long been suspicion among Likudniks that the Bush Administration favors the center-left Labor Party, headed by Prime Minister-designate Shimon Peres, over Shamir’s rightist Likud.

On Wednesday, the day after being tapped to succeed Shamir, Peres was busily trying to pull together enough parliamentary support to set up a government. He wooed two religious parties with promises of ministries and money for their pet projects, schools and housing. Labor officials predicted that he would announce a new Cabinet by next week.

Shamir rejected a cursory invitation from Peres to join him as a junior partner in a new unity government because Peres has promised to move ahead with American-brokered peace talks.

“We will act with all our ability so that a government headed by Mr. Peres is not set up,” said Arab Affairs Minister Ehud Olmert of Likud. “We think that a government headed by Mr. Peres is not good.”

Industry Minister Moshe Nissim, also a Likudnik, said that a Labor-led government would cause “severe political damage to Israel.”

Spokesman Yossi Olmert produced a list of conflicts with Washington that seemed designed to upset the Shamir regime: Israel’s military contacts with South Africa and Ethiopia; the criticism from Bush over Israel’s abduction of a Muslim cleric in southern Lebanon last year; the issue of aid to Soviet Jewish immigrants who settle in East Jerusalem, and Washington’s continued dialogue with the Palestine Liberation Organization.

The latest irritant to Shamir’s government came in the form of a State Department report that essentially absolved the PLO of authorizing terror attacks on Israel.

The report listed nearly 30 border and rocket attacks by Palestinian groups against Israel since PLO Chairman Yassir Arafat renounced the use of terrorism in December, 1988. But it added: “We have no evidence in those cases or any others that the actions were authorized and approved by the PLO Executive Committee or by Arafat personally.”

Spokesman Olmert said the report “is not relevant to reality.”

“The PLO continues to be deeply involved in terrorist activity against Israel, both in Israel proper and in the occupied areas,” he said.

Olmert’s argument was partially undercut by Israel’s army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Shomron, who told a Parliament committee that there is no proof that Arafat’s faction in the PLO, Fatah, is carrying out attacks against Israel.

Besides looking to Washington, some senior Likud officials found cause for blame within the party. Intra-party rivalries reached a high pitch in recent weeks.

“We were giving not the impression of ruling, but of trying to hold onto power,” said top aide Yosef Ben-Aharon. “If the battle for succession begins, Likud could disappear for some time.”

Likud rivalries are set to reignite, however.

“If Peres nears forming a government, everyone will be smelling blood,” spokesman Olmert said.