Odd Couple

Likud and Labor go courting

The turning point came at Ezer Weizman's home last Wednesday morning, when the former Defense Minister told Shimon Peres, leader of the Labor Party, that he would join a Labor-led government. Peres was jubilant. For more than two weeks he had been trying to scrape together a coalition government to succeed that of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and his Likud bloc. Starting with the 44 Knesset seats his party had won in July's national elections, Peres also enjoyed the allegiance of two small parties, bringing the total to 50. But he still remained shy of the 61 needed for a parliamentary majority. By winning the support of Weizman and his party, Yahad, Peres picked up an additional three seats. More important, however, he dashed any lingering hopes Shamir might have had of wooing the pivotal Weizman to his side.

What kind of coalition Peres might form remained uncertain. Two days after the Weizman coup, the Labor leader met with Shamir at Jerusalem's King David Hotel for further talks on the possibility of forming a national unity government. Though the two sides have been discussing such a step for almost three weeks, Shamir so far has refused to accept Peres as the Prune Minister in a Labor-Likud union. After the meeting both men agreed that progress had been made, but a pact remained elusive. Likud and Labor representatives also met to settle differences over foreign policy. Though both parties agreed that Israel should withdraw its 22,000 troops from southern Lebanon, there was disagreement over other key issues, including the pace of Jewish settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Peres is also pursuing alliances with several tiny religious parties in the hope of achieving a Knesset majority without Likud's help. Peres is especially lobbying the ultraorthodox Agudat Yisrael (two seats) and the National Religious Party (four seats), a mainstream Orthodox group that is holding out for the Ministries of Religious Affairs, Education and Interior. Yet the National Religious Party complicated Peres' task last week by announcing that it would join only a wider coalition that included Likud.

Weizman's support of Labor carried a large price tag. Peres promised him his choice of becoming either Foreign Minister or Finance Minister, along with safe seats for Weizman and the two other Yahad members in the next Knesset election. Likud officials, who reportedly offered to rotate the office of Prime Minister between Shamir and Weizman if the maverick would side with them, were incensed by the compact. Deputy Prime Minister David Levy accused Labor of acting like "thieves in the night," while other Cabinet ministers labeled Weizman a "traitor" and a "backstabber." The new Labor ally dismissed the charges, pointing out that Likud had refused his request to join their ticket before the elections.

Peres was expected to ask President Chaim Herzog last Sunday for a three-week extension of Labor's mandate to build a government. Peres is likely to spend this week trying to patch together a narrow coalition with the religious parties. His Likud rivals are confident that the effort will fail, forcing Peres to bargain more seriously with Shamir over getting together, finally, in a national unity government. That may be rough going, since several of Peres' Labor colleagues oppose an alliance with Likud. As last week's exchanges between Labor and Likud proved, a government of unity would not necessarily be one of harmony.