Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 26 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE March 21, 1986
— Shamir —
Continued from page 1.
leadership and the post of chair
man of the party executive as
Shamir did before, the foreign
minister would hold only the party
leadership with David Levy in ef
fect taking on near-equal status as
head of the party institutions.
Shamir is also not pleased at ele
vating Sharon to such a senior
position in the party. Nor is he sat
isfied in that the man he sees as his
successor. Minister without Port
folio Moshe Arens, would be ex
cluded from party leadership.
Sharon rests his case on the
notion that it was he who defeated
Shamir’s candidate, Benny Begin,
the 43-year-old geologist/political
neophyte son of Menachem Begin,
for the post of chairman of the
convention mandates committee.
At any rate, the Levy-Sharon
team argues that it controls 56 per
cent of the delegates on the basis of
the Sharon-Begin vote and there
fore deserves parity with Shamir, if
not primacy over him.
The session Wednesday night at
the Herut convention was unpre
cedented in Israeli political his
tory. During the first few days of
the convention Shamir's forces
and the Sharon-Levy forces had
battled to a 1-1 draw in the conven
tion contests. Shamir’s candidate,
Labor Minister Moshe Katzav.
had defeated the Sharon-Levy
candidate, Eliahu Ben-Elissar for
the post of convention chairman.
But the next day, Sharon had
defeated Benny Begin, setting the
stage for the tense Wednesday
meeting.
The one remaining convention
vote pitted David Levy himself
against Shamir’s man, Arens, for
the post of chairman of the con
vention steering committee. After
the Sharon-Begin vote. Levy was
favored to win. But the vote was
never to be.
Instead, events got out of con-
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Continued from page 1.
a Jewish place of worship.” He
added, “I did not expect this to
come about so soon, but I am plea
santly touched that it has.”
A papal visit to the synagogue
has been long considered a neces
sary “next step” in the interreli
gious dialogue by Jews and by en
lightened Christians. But it was
never openly solicited by Rome’s
Jewish community.
The Jewish community, which
has existed for 2,000 years and sur
vived more than a millenia under
the “shadow” of the Vatican, in
good times and bad, has always felt
itself to be the “wronged party.” It
therefore considered it inappro
priate to take the “first step” for
this potently symbolic move.
It would be up to the Vatican to
make the move, the Jews always
felt, considering the historical
context of Jewish relations with
the Church of Rome. The ground
work was laid by the pope’s visit
several months ago to the Walden-
sian Protestant Church in Rome,
another historical “first.”
Lhe main synagogue is an histor
ical landmark in Rome. Located in
the Lungotevere Cenci, near the
*
£
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Pope John
River Tiber, it was laid down in
1900. On July 2, 1904, it was offi
cially visted by King Victor Ema
nuel III. It was formally dedicated
on July 28 of that year at ceremo
nies attended by the highest au
thorities of the Italian State and
the Rome municipality.
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trol when Sharon sought to get
convention approval for the com
position of his mandates commit
tee, a move that would pave the
way for his adding 200 more pro-
Levy and pro-Sharon delegates to
the convention. Katzav would
have none of that.
The party’s leaders took to the
podium, trading insults. Shamir
said Levy was suffering from
“megalomania.” Levy retorted
that Shamir’s behavior was “better
suited to Disneyland.” Shamir
asked Sharon if he was trying to
run the mandates committee as if
he were chief of staff of a regional
command.
In an odd gesture to calm things,
Katzav proposed that the conven
tion give a vote of confidence to
Shamir as party leader. A roar of
disapproval from Levy and Sha
ron delegates put that idea on the
shelf.
When Katzav called a hasty re
cess, Knesset member David Ma-
gen, a pro-Sharon delegate, swept
on to the stage, put the proposal to
approve Sharon’s mandates com
mittee to a vote and it was accep
ted. Sharon’s plan to add 200 dele
gates was accepted as well. Katzav
was quickly ousted as convention
chairman and Magen voted in to
replace him.
The Sharon-Levy forces had
taken over the convention.
Katzav returned to the floor,
shocked at what had happened,
but neither he nor Shamir could
restore order; in fact both men had
to be protected by security guards
as they walked through the crowd
to leave the convention floor.
For the next 48 hours, party
leaders and delegates were too
stunned to say much. Shamir ap
pointed Yoram Aridor, a former
finance minister, to try to mediate
among the factions. But Levy was
not in a mood for reconciliation.
Shamir seemed resigned to having
no convention for a while, and
hence no party support as Herut
leader. Sharon came forth over the
weekend as the voice of concilia
tion, suggesting his compromise
proposal.
Peres was keeping his own coun
sel, deploring the violence and bit
ter exchanges which had character
ized the Herut convention; but
saying nothing to suggest whether
he would try to exploit the new
political situation. Labor party
members were encouraging him to
do so. They pointed to indications
from some of the smaller parties
who now seemed prepared to join
Peres in a narrow government.
Whether Peres actually had their
votes remained to be seen.
Next Sunday the Labor Party
Centra! Committee will meet to
discuss a proposal being pushed by
100 members to demand that Peres
scuttle the rotation agreement with
Shamir. Peres publicly opposes the
proposal, but the meeting, in view
of the Herut turmoil, promises to
be a difficult one for the prime
minister.
Labor will hold its own conven
tion in early April. Peres will prob
ably come under even more pres
sure then to figure out a way to do
away with the rotation.
Should he manage to do that, he
could continue in office until 1988
without calling new elections as
long as he is able to win the support
of 61 Knesset delegates who would
be part of a narrow government.
Certainly, Peres would want that
as opposed to new elections where
he faces an uncertain risk.
Public opinion polls suggest that
while he remains quite popular if
elections were held this week the
results would be about the same as
in the summer of 1984 when Labor
won 44 seats, and the Likud 41,
keeping either party from forming
a government on its own. It was
that near-equal result which paved
the way for the national unity
government; and the Peres-Shamir
rotation agreement.
Pope