Newspaper Page Text
/f’s no secret
Peres’ foreign policy coup
by Yaacov Ben Yosef
Special to The Southern Israelite
JERUSALEM —After months of
behind-the-scenes maneuvering,
Prime Minister Shimon Peres
pulled off a major foreign policy
coup this week by traveling in
semi-public fashion to Morocco
for talks with King Hassan.
Peres, skipping ceremonies at
Ben-Gurion Airport marking the
official roll-out of Israel’s new
fighter aircraft the Lavi, winged to
Morocco Monday afternoon in se
cret.
He took with him reporters for
Israel Television and Israel Radio,
but as of Tuesday midday, after
Peres was reported here to be in
Morocco, Hassan’s government had
not officially confirmed the visit.
Before even waiting for such
confirmation, Syria broke diplo
matic relations with Morocco when
word came that Peres had left on
his journey.
Other Israeli leaders, including
Peres himself, had visited Morocco
but those visits were always kept a
secret and only were made known
months, or years later. But Has
san, as early as November 1985,
has been toying with the idea of
holding talks with Peres, appar
ently on a public basis.
It was not immediately clear
what foreign policy achievements
the Peres-Hassan meetings would
produce. Peres may ask Hassan to
pressure Jordan’s King Hussein
into a more flexible position on
negotiations over the West Bank.
Indeed, there were even rumors
that the Jordanian monarch might
join the Peres-Hassan talks.
With less than three months left
before he must turn over the prime
ministry to Likud Foreign Min
ister Yitzhak Shamir, Peres is eager
to seek progress on the foreign pol
icy front. Eager to take over power
on Oct. 14, Shamir will not want to
restrict Peres’ room for maneuver
ing with Hassan. To do so might jeo
pardize rotation.
Israelis generally applauded the
prime minister’s historic journey,
with some noting that it was almost
as significant as the visit to Jerusa
lem in November 1977 of the late
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
While few expected immediate or
tangible results to follow the ses
sions, the mere fact that Peres and
Hassan were meeting with the know
ledge of outsiders was considered
significant.
It has been a busy week for
Peres. Hours before he left for
Morocco he saw through to a suc
cessful conclusion yet another
flare-up with the Likud that could
have threatened the fate of the
National Unity Government. This
crisis again involved Yitzhak
Modai.
Angered over public criticism
leveled at him by Modai, Peres
managed Monday to ease Modai
out of the Cabinet without a con
frontation that might have led to
the sudden collapse of the govern
ment.
Justice Minister Modai tendered
Yaacov Ben Yosef
his resignation Monday at noon
soon after Peres had announced
that he planned to fire Modai at an
afternoon Cabinet meeting espe
cially called for that purpose. By 3
p.m. Monday, the Cabinet approved
Modai’s resignation and the crisis
was over. Peres left soon afterward
for Morocco.
Shamir s Likud, unwilling to
cause a government crisis over
Peres’ plan to fire Modai, went
along and agreed to the justice
minister’s departure without mak
ing a fuss.
The immediate cause for the
Peres-Modai fracas was a speech
given by the justice minister last
• week to students in Herzylia. Modai
asserted that “Peres knows as much
about law as he knows about eco
nomics.”
This time, unlike in April when
Modai publicly criticized Peres,
the prime minister wasted no time
in announcing that he would fire
the justice minister. In April, a
compromise was reached: rather
than being dismissed, Modai left
the Finance Ministry and Moshe
Nissim, then justice minister, be
came finance minister.
With only three months to go
before rotation, the Likud felt that
it could not afford to challenge
Peres’ authority to fire Modai,
much as it would have liked to.
Had the Likud opposed Peres’
plan to fire Modai, it might have
convinced the justice minister not
to resign. The way would have
been cleared for a direct confronta
tion between Likud and Peres’
Labor with the prospect of new
elections looming if the crisis could
not be otherwise resolved.
Clearly, the Likud bloc did not
want to chance that. If the situa
tion remains as is, Shamir and the
Likud will take over power on Oct.
14 from Peres and Labor as the
rotation agreements calls for. But,
if new elections are called, rotation
is off, and no one can be certain
how Likud and Labor would fare.
Peres has decided to become act
ing justice minister for the time
being, easing his own task in decid
ing what to do about the ongoing
Shin Bet Affair.
Finally, Monday evening saw
the first roll-out of the new, con
troversial fighter plane for the
1990s, known as the Lavi. Costing
thus far $1.2 billion, the Lavi has
become the object of much criti
cism within the U.S. where the
Reagan administration has sought,
thus far unsuccessfully, to scrub
the project due to the increasing
American price tag.
Some 2,000 invited guests, in
cluding five members cf the U.S.
Congress, showed up for the roll
out. The Reagan administration
declined to send an official repre
sentative, indicating its displeasure
with the project.
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PAGE 3 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE July 25, 1986