Last Monday, just hours before a special meeting of the
government following the wave of terror attacks that struck
the country, members of the Ichud Leumi-Yisrael Beiteinu
Party convened a meeting of their own. Sitting at the head of
the table were the two party ministers, Avigdor Lieberman and
Benny Alon. Party members were handed an information sheet
containing Government Secretary Gidon Saar's press conference
announcement following the Security Cabinet meeting held
after the murder of Rechavam Ze'evi, Hy'd.
Saar told reporters of the Cabinet's decision to "demand that
Arafat and the Palestinian Authority hand over Ze'evi's
murderers and their operators immediately, and illegalize all
terrorist organizations and extensions of terrorist
organizations, along with the infrastructure that supports
them. If the PA fails to meet these demands based on signed
agreements, Israel would have no choice other than to view it
as an terrorist-supporting entity and to act against it
accordingly."
Arafat had not fulfilled the demands presented to him
following the murder of Ze'evi, and therefore all the
government had to do was to carry out its previous decision
as stated by Saar.
Benny Alon took out a clean sheet of paper and began to draft
a proposal for the decision to be reached at the government
meeting that evening. He passed the paper around, and once it
had received unanimous approval, placed it in his pocket,
ready for the upcoming meeting.
A few minutes after the party meeting concluded, in order to
ensure the success of the move they had devised, Alon and
Lieberman contacted other ministers to garner their support
as well. They spoke with Likud Ministers Rivlin, Hanegbi,
Naveh, Livnat and Landau, with Shas Chairman Eli Yishai and
with Sharansky; they faxed them copies of the proposed
resolution and received their backing.
At the meeting Tourism Minister Benny Alon did indeed whisk
out the paper that had been prepared hours before at his
party meeting and read it aloud to the assembled ministers.
Eventually it was adopted as the official decision, to the
great displeasure of Labor Party ministers, who protested and
rejected the proposal, storming out of the meeting room.
This story, unpublished until now, is what led, more than
anything else, to great frustration on the part of Labor
Party ministers who implied that a crisis situation had
developed, just as if they were considering resigning from
the government.
The Labor Party has 23 MKs and seven government ministers,
two of whom are top ranking: the Foreign Minister and the
Defense Minister. Meanwhile Ichud Leumi-Yisrael Beiteinu has
only seven MKs and two ministers, i.e. less than one-third of
Labor. Yet the diminutive right-wing party defeated the
heavyweight labor party twice in the course of the government
meeting.
The first time was when Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit
proposed a compromise that both Sharon and Peres agreed to,
but Lieberman and Alon threatened that if approved, they
would resign from the government, and Sharon promptly removed
the proposal from the agenda. The second time was when Labor
demanded delaying the vote on the decision for one week, but
Lieberman and Alon insisted that the vote be held
immediately. Soon afterwards the proposed decision was
adopted as the decision of the entire government.
Yet despite the dramatic abstention and the threatening
pronouncements by Labor Party ministers and MKs, it was
obvious that their resignation from the government was about
as likely as the chances of Bin Ladin being granted political
asylum in the US. Threats can be tossed around, to attract a
few minutes of media attention, but no more than that because
the Labor Party simply has nowhere else to go. Neither Peres
nor Sneh nor Matan Vilnai nor Dalia Itzik is prepared to set
out for the desert of opposition and to be reduced to simple
MKs, far from the pleasures of power. Furthermore, the timing
would be horrendous for them.
Perhaps Eitan Cabel put it best when he said if the Labor
Party were to resign from the government based on security
issues, it would be tantamount to suicide.
The best evidence of this is that besides making a bit of
noise, Labor ministers had no real intentions of resigning
from the government, which can be seen from the fact that a
few hours after Monday's meeting, four of the ministers flew
to various destinations abroad, meaning business as usual.
Ministers do not pick up and leave the country when the
political scene is raging and critical decisions have to be
reached.
Dread of Binyamin
Shimon Peres is fuming over his relative lack of influence in
the government. As Ophir Pines said, the Labor Party's sway
in the government is hovering around zero. Which is true
enough. But when Shimon Peres looks back and sees that
instead of Sharon, Netanyahu stands waiting in the wings, he
shoves all of the plans for resignation deep down into his
briefcase and returns to Sharon's side, as difficult as it
may be for him. Not out of a love for Ariel as much as hatred
for Binyamin.
Binyamin Netanyahu, say his close associates, was surprised
by the government's decision. He did not believe that Sharon
was capable of going so far and taking such a clearly right-
wing step with Peres at his side and a unity government in
place. Netanyahu is counting on Sharon to remain in the
center and to take action that will not find favor among
right-wing voters, which would guarantee his victory in the
Likud primaries.
When Netanyahu heard about the government's decision and
about the possibility of a resignation, his associates
announced that if Labor does resign from the government,
Netanyahu would work to have the elections held as soon as
possible.
Current surveys give the Likud 40-45 mandates, while Labor
has a mere 20. Netanyahu believes that Labor's partnership in
the government is responsible for the loss of at least 10
mandates, and as an opposition party it would be able to
rehabilitate itself and to rise to as many as 30 mandates.
Therefore, if Labor resigns, Netanyahu would work to hold
early elections as soon as possible so that the Likud would
come to the elections at the height of its power and prevent
Labor from making a recovery as an opposition party.
Peres and his allies are aware of Netanyahu's power in the
Likud. The last thing the Labor Party wants is to hold
elections now. Therefore they have no alternative other than
to swallow the pill, suffer the humiliation and continue in
hope of brighter days to come.
Chaim Ramon was among the first to realize that it would be
terrible timing to resign from the government at this point
and made clear that he would not support such a move. Knesset
Chairman Avraham Burg, whose political instincts are no less
sharp than Ramon's, is aware of the peril of resignation at
present, but he has an entirely different set of
considerations.
Burg is thinking about the repeat elections to be held in
another few weeks at 40 polling places as part of the ongoing
battle to head the Labor Party. Burg would very much like to
see his rival, Binyamin Ben Eliezer, out of the government,
because the title of Defense Minister boosts Ben Eliezer
considerably in terms of media exposure and provides him a
good springboard--a distinct advantage over the title Knesset
Chairman. If Labor resigns from the government, Ben Eliezer
would lose his post while Burg would retain his. This is just
what the latter would like to see happen--but won't.
