Israeli Crisis May Bring Together Likud, Labor

With a crisis in the peace process deepening and renewed fears that Israeli-Palestinian relations have reached a breaking point, speculation increased this week that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will invite the leftist Labor Party to join his Likud Party in a government of national unity.

Labor Party leader Shimon Peres declared publicly last week that he favors the idea, and several newspapers, citing anonymous sources, have started printing the makeup of a prospective Likud-Labor coalition Cabinet.

While denying any such deal has been made, sources close to the prime minister are not closing the door.

“It is not out of the question. Both sides feel they may be able to benefit,” one government official said Wednesday night.

But he cautioned that any invitation probably would not occur quickly.

“There’s plenty of time,” he said.

Relations between Israel and the Palestinians have taken a dangerous turn in recent days, with violent protests by Arabs against Israeli construction of a housing settlement in East Jerusalem, and Israel accusing Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat of having issued a “green light” for a terrorist bombing that killed three Israelis and the bomber Friday in Tel Aviv.

U.S. peace negotiator Dennis B. Ross has been dispatched to the region in an attempt to bring the two sides closer together.

He was to meet with Arafat in Rabat, Morocco, and arrive in Jerusalem tonight for talks with Israeli officials.

In the prevailing gloomy atmosphere, many Israelis, including several members of Netanyahu’s right-wing Cabinet, have been calling for a Labor-Likud coalition to knit the nation together.

The government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a unity government could give Netanyahu “a position of . . . towering strength” in upcoming talks with the Palestinians covering sensitive issues such as the future of Jerusalem and the fate of Jewish settlements.

The benefit to the Labor Party and Peres, whom Netanyahu defeated in a bitterly fought election campaign last year, would be the chance to influence Cabinet discussions during the remaining three years of Netanyahu’s term, the official said.

But formidable obstacles would need to be overcome, with Labor and Likud deeply divided within their own ranks over a coalition government, commentators said.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, I really think the probability of a national unity government today is between 2 and 3,” said Reuven Hasen, a political science professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Speculation about a national unity government has occurred on and off since Netanyahu’s election as prime minister in May.

In recent days, however, such talk has taken on new urgency.

The argument goes that Netanyahu is incapable of moving the peace process forward while his government is saddled with a right-wing core that refuses to make more concessions to the Palestinians.

Therefore, unless he wants to scuttle the peace process, he must shake off extremists and bring in Labor ministers more supportive of compromise.

The newspaper Haaretz said Wednesday that Peres is canvassing fellow Labor Party members to get them to support a unity government if and when it is proposed.

According to the newspaper, the present plan would be to expand the Cabinet to include 23 ministers--up from the current 18. Eight would be from Labor, eight from Likud and seven seats would be reserved for other, small parties.

Netanyahu and Peres reportedly met Sunday and agreed on general principles for such a government. Its aim would be to achieve the widest possible consensus among Israelis and to speed up final negotiations with the Palestinians.

The basic tenets would be to maintain the unity of Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty, preserve existing settlements and oppose the establishment of a fully independent Palestinian state, the newspaper Yediot Aharonot said Tuesday.

At a Labor Party meeting a week ago, Peres spoke in favor of a unity government, asking opponents: “Do you want to make the Labor Party irrelevant precisely during the crucial upcoming three years?” according to the newspaper Haaretz.

Netanyahu denied last week that he has made any deal with Peres.

“Journalistic speculation,” Netanyahu spokesman Shai Bazak said.

Israeli pollster Honach Smith said Wednesday that based on past surveys, a majority of Israelis would undoubtedly favor a unity government.

“Unity is the option 70% of the Israelis prefer,” agreed an editorial in Yediot Aharonot. “It will be the government of the sane majority.”

Hasen said all the talk about a unity government could be nothing more than a ploy by Netanyahu to rein in his more right-wing supporters.

“Every time extremists in his party start raising their head, he says, ‘Would you prefer a national unity government?’ That’s his game,” he said.

Other commentators doubted that Labor would go into a coalition without the consent of Ehud Barak, the former defense minister who is expected to win a Labor leadership contest in June.

Barak said last week that he is opposed to joining Netanyahu’s “government of failure, disgrace and stench.”