Levy Drops His Threat to Resign

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir today persuaded Foreign Minister David Levy not to resign from the Cabinet, defusing a crisis that threatened to hurt the Likud Party on the eve of June elections.

Shamir and Levy signed an agreement moments before the weekly Cabinet meeting. Levy had announced last Sunday he would quit, but he would have had to hand in his resignation to the Cabinet to make it official.

Details of the agreement were not immediately released. Earlier, Shamir had promised Levy the posts of foreign minister and deputy prime minister in a future Likud government.

As ministers and reporters waited for the meeting to start, Shamir met Levy privately for about 20 minutes. The two men then walked into the meeting hall.

“I am happy to announce to the members of the Cabinet that the foreign minister and myself reached agreement this morning about all the differences between us,” Shamir announced.

“The foreign minister will continue in his job in the government,” he said.

Levy promptly confirmed the news, saying, as Israeli radios broadcast the remarks live, “as the prime minister has said, we reached an agreement concerning all the items of controversy, and we signed an agreement together.”

Levy is the Cabinet’s strongest backer of Arab-Israeli peace talks, and his resignation could have cost Shamir votes among Israelis who want the right-wing Likud to move the peace process forward. It also could have hurt Likud among Sephardis--Jews of Middle East and North African origin.

Observers had said the week between Levy’s announcement that he would resign, and the Cabinet meeting gave him time to lobby for more weight in the party.