Rabin’s Coalition: Bridge for Peace? : Pragmatism is no answer in itself, but it could open up options for Israel

Labor Party leader Yitzhak Rabin is preparing to present his new coalition government to Israel’s parliament, less than three weeks after national elections emphatically ended the 15-year dominance of the right-wing Likud bloc and cleared the way for warmer relations with the United States.

As with the majority of previous governments, this one will represent an eclectic mix. Labor will join to its 44 votes in the 120-member Knesset a dozen from the left-of-center and strongly secular Meretz bloc and six from Shas, an Orthodox religious party. With the promised support of Arab members who won’t be part of the government, Rabin can anticipate a comfortable voting majority. At the same time Rabin would still like to enlist the support of the hard-line but secular Tzomet party, which has eight seats and which--contrary to both Labor and Meretz--opposes any territorial compromise on the West Bank. The appeal to Labor of leading such a broad coalition is that the more parties there are, the less leverage each can exert in behalf of its own causes. The real test will of course be whether a coalition based on such disparate impulses can effectively govern, especially when it comes to agreeing on how to pursue the peace process.

Rabin in any case shows every sign of being serious about moving to break the impasse with the Arabs, beginning with what he hopes will be an early agreement to provide limited autonomy to the 1.7 million Palestinians living in the disputed territories. We now know that Likud was not serious about the peace process, because outgoing Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir has admitted as much. In a post-election interview, Shamir said he had intended to stall the U.S.-sponsored peace talks for 10 years while he pursued Likud’s dream of colonizing the West Bank.

Washington, it’s fair to say, suspected as much. That’s why it has quietly cheered Labor’s victory, and why in all probability Israel will soon get at least a significant portion of the American loan guarantees for immigrant absorption that it needs. Israel’s turn away from ideology and toward pragmatism deserves full U.S. support and encouragement. Pragmatism doesn’t guarantee that problems can be resolved, but at least it offers the hope that they will be honestly faced.