Israeli Left, Swallow Hard and Join

Israel’s Labor Party, minus its chairman, Ehud Barak, is expected to decide early next week whether to accept Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon’s invitation to take part in a national unity government. That decision has been made easier by Barak’s resignation as party leader and the announcement that he will not accept a post in the new government. His earlier apparent readiness to serve as defense minister under Sharon, who trounced him in the Feb. 6 election for prime minister, produced outrage among many party leaders, already furious at Barak’s secretiveness, lack of collegiality and humiliating electoral loss.

Barak’s departure does not mean the last barrier to Labor joining a unity government has fallen. Much remains to be negotiated, not least the roles that far-right parties will play. Israel’s fragmented political system forces multi-party coalitions to secure the minimum 61 votes needed for a parliamentary majority. Labor, a center-left party, could decide to stay out of the coalition if it fears that ultra-religious and ultranationalist groups could gain too much influence.

The chance to offset that influence--and perhaps even moderate Sharon’s own hard-line predilections--is one of the better reasons for Labor to join the new government. Even if it takes the offered defense and foreign ministries, Labor can’t expect to reorient Sharon’s uncompromising approach to peacemaking with the Palestinians. He remains committed to holding on to all Israeli settlements in the West Bank and resisting any change in Jerusalem’s status. But if nothing else a Labor role in the new government might serve Israel’s future interests by helping keep relations with the Arabs from regressing much further.

Much inevitably depends on what the Palestinians and their radical backers in Lebanon do. If violence doesn’t soon abate, if clashes along Israel’s northern border continue, many will see Sharon’s tough stance as validated. An Israeli public that not long ago was ready to accept sweeping concessions to the Palestinians to achieve peace could find itself lining up in greater numbers behind the hard-liners.