Disunity: The Enemy Within

In past military confrontations with its hostile neighbors, Israel could count on at least one decisive asset: its own unity, in contrast to debilitating discord within the Arabs' ranks. Facing perhaps its most serious challenge since it won the war for independence 25 years ago, Israel now finds its foes unprecedentedly unified, while its own internal harmony has been shaken by self-doubts and recriminations.

Israelis are confused by the setbacks that their armed forces suffered in the early days of the war, and depressed by the loss of at least 1,854 lives on the battlefield. Premier Golda Meir admitted last week that in the first days of the Yom Kippur War, even she feared that Israel would be defeated and annihilated. Attempting to still the cries of critics who charge that her government was unprepared for the war, she appointed a nonpartisan five-man commission, headed by Supreme Court President Shimon Agranat, to investigate the army's errors.

Smashed Window. There was other criticism that she has not been able to still. Last Thursday about 100 relatives of prisoners held by the Syrians smashed some of the windows of the Knesset, Israel's parliament. They were demanding stronger government action to free the prisoners. Moreover, public irritability is bound to grow as the economic dislocation caused by the war gets worse. Last week the military command extended the "high state of alert" an additional 90 days. That meant that at least 165,000 Israelis--about 15% of the labor force--who were mobilized into the armed forces will be away from their vitally needed work in factories, shops and fields that much longer.

The extraordinary display of unity by Arab leaders in Algiers and the hard bargaining line taken by the Egyptians in the talks at Kilometer 101 can only unnerve Israel even more. According to a poll released last week by the Israel Institute of Applied Social Research in Jerusalem, 84% of Israelis are convinced that the Arabs still intend to destroy Israel. Says Jack Lewin-Epstein, a Jerusalem dental surgeon: "The Arabs are not out after square kilometers of land but for the destruction of Israel. When the Arabs tell me in one form or another, day and night, that they are out to destroy my state, why should I not believe them?"

Fully 86% of Israel's citizens, according to the institute, believe that another war is possible, perhaps within a year. At the same time, reflecting Israel's current confused state of mind, 53% are now willing to return some of the occupied territories to Egypt; only 19% were prepared to do so at the height of the war. There are also, increasingly, shadings of thought about Arabs. Many Israelis, who have long viewed Jordan's King Hussein as the most accommodating Arab leader, refer to him by the friendly diminutive "Hussey" and praise him for not opening a third front against them. Egypt's President Anwar Sadat, if not liked, is at least more respected than he was before the war.

Israel's respect for its own government, meanwhile, has plummeted. A poll by Tel Aviv's independent newspaper Ha'aretz revealed that only 45% of those questioned want Mrs. Meir to continue as Premier. In a poll before the war, 65% supported her. Ya'acov Shimshon Shapiro, who recently resigned as Minister of Justice, has again urged the Premier and Defense Minister Moshe Dayan to resign, charging that they are incapable of making peace. The youth magazine Ot of Mrs. Meir's own Labor Party published an article calling for her resignation.

In a counterattack against her critics, Mrs. Meir last week summoned the 600-member Labor Party central committee to an extraordinary meeting. "We want to know who is for whom and who is for what," she declared. She soon learned. A demonstration of several hundred Labor Party members and leftists, some carrying posters demanding she resign, greeted her at the conference hall.

More Dovish. Inside the hall, bitter debates followed the presentation of the draft of a 14-point program. The draft did not explicitly revise the party platform adopted just before the war, which had called for Israeli expansion into the occupied Arab territories. Nonetheless, the proposed new program did seem slightly more dovish. For example, Point 2 of the draft platform calls upon Israel to maintain "defensible borders based on territorial compromise." Previous Labor Party conferences had rejected any reference to a compromise on territory and had demanded "secure" borders--a clearly tougher concept than "defensible" borders.

But this slightly dovish trend is by no means general. It is offset by a strong trend in the opposite direction, as Israel is pulled to and fro between appeals to be more flexible and to be even more unyielding. This week Labor delegates convene again to prepare the party for the postponed Knesset elections, scheduled for Dec. 31. Before the war there was not much question that Labor would win an easy victory. But now the hawkish, right-wing Likud Coalition, led by War Hero General Ariel ("Arik") Sharon, looms as a formidable opponent: some polls indicate that it could capture as many seats as Labor.

Although Mrs. Meir is likely to remain Premier, a strong hawkish showing in the election would make it difficult for her new government to grant major concessions at the upcoming Geneva peace conference. A continued stalemate may lead to renewed warfare --something Israel can ill afford. On the other hand, Arye ("Lyova") Eliav, a leading Labor Party dove and critic of the Premier, warns that unless the party's leadership takes an even more conciliatory stance, "the street may come out against it." Considering the potentially volatile mood of Israel today, street demonstrations are not impossible, nor are clashes between hawks and doves. If that happens, Israel's leaders will hardly be able to negotiate with any strength in Geneva.

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