Turbine Issue Takes a Quiet Turn in Israel

A controversy that Israelis dubbed “the turbine in the teapot” was quietly defused Sunday without causing a major crisis for the governing coalition of Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

At least for now.

Leaders of the religious Shas Party, who had angrily threatened to leave the coalition over the truck transport of a giant turbine part on the Jewish Sabbath, backed down after meeting with Barak and receiving assurances that the government will consider weekday alternatives to such operations in the future.

Political analysts said the controversy over the turbina--actually, a 300-ton part for a power plant in the port city of Ashkelon--may have had as much to do with fighting within Shas, Israel’s largest religious party, as with party concerns over the sanctity of the Sabbath.

Some noted that Shas had participated in four previous governments that allowed such objects to be moved on the holy day. Jewish religious law forbids all forms of labor, including driving, on the Sabbath.

The improbable saga of the massive metal part, and the dispute over when and how to get it to its destination, dominated news coverage here over the weekend, with sections of its 50-mile overnight journey Friday from the Tel Aviv area to Ashkelon covered live on Israeli television.

A cartoon in Sunday’s Haaretz newspaper poked fun at the sudden significance attached to a piece of machinery. It showed a smiling Barak telephoning President Clinton, who then passes the news on to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: “The turbine made it!”

Several commentators, examining the dispute one called “total lunacy,” tweaked both the religious and secular figures who had turned the turbine part into a weighty symbol in their bitter culture war. Columnist Nahum Barnea, writing in Sunday’s Yediot Aharonot newspaper, said the government’s decision was a “victory for common sense.”

After meeting with Barak on Sunday, Health Minister Shlomo Benizri of Shas said that any future Sabbath infractions will be studied by the party’s spiritual leaders, who will then make decisions about Shas’ participation in the coalition. But most analysts said the party, which controls four Cabinet ministries in the Barak government, is likely to stay put for the near future.

The motives for the dispute over the turbine appear to have grown, at least in part, out of internal wrangling, as Shas struggles to find a new political leader along with its footing in the new government. Aryeh Deri, the party’s longtime leader, was convicted on corruption charges in the spring and is out of politics.

A close Deri ally, Infrastructure Minister Eli Suissa, had declared Friday that Shas would quit the government if the Sabbath move was made. A rival, Labor Minister Eli Yishai, argued against that, according to Israeli media reports. Some analysts said Suissa might have been motivated by a desire to provoke a crisis, which could have induced the party to call for Deri’s return to rescue it.

Whatever the motive, it didn’t work. Barak insisted that the decision on moving the turbine part should be professional, not political.

“Shas made a muscle to try to show that the party is strong, that it can stand up to Barak, and it failed,” said political science professor Efraim Inbar of Tel Aviv’s Bar Ilan University. “Barak called their bluff.”

But others said the dispute should also send a warning to Barak that Shas, caught up in its own infighting, may be a less than reliable partner as he tries to revive the Middle East peace process and move forward on other critical issues.

As it stands, the next test for the coalition could come in about three weeks, when another massive piece of equipment is scheduled to make the same journey to Ashkelon.