Rabin on the Razor's Edge

The more exciting the secret in Israel, the faster it is leaked, as Henry Kissinger learned to his dismay and anger more than once in the course of his sessions with high-level Israeli leaders. Thus last week, even before the vote was formally announced at the most important Labor Party convention in the country's history, the outcome was already being whispered among close to 3,000 party delegates packed into Tel Aviv's Mann Auditorium. Entering the hall to take his place among them and hear the announcement, Premier Yitzhak Rabin, 55, was greeted with knowing cries: "Rabin! Rabin! Rabin! Rabin!"

By defeating Defense Minister Shimon Peres, 54, Rabin will be the Labor Party's candidate for Premier in ahead-of-schedule general elections in May. But the victory was so razor thin that it can only mean trouble for the party, the country and possibly the Middle East. With abstentions and irregularities culled, Rabin won by only 41 ballots (1,445 to 1,404), or less than 2%. Significantly, Rabin only squeaked through by sweeping the votes allotted to Israel's conservative kibbutzim, where Labor Party members traditionally get nearly double the convention representation of everyone else in recognition of the key part that early Zionist kibbutzniks played in Israel's development. In short, the Premier's narrow party victory was a minority vote.

Washington was quietly pleased by the outcome. A pre-vote invitation to Rabin from Jimmy Carter to visit the U.S. was interpreted in Israel as outright U.S. backing of the Rabin candidacy, and Peres supporters protested such undue interference in Israel's internal affairs.

Obvious Disappointment. Arab statesmen, on the other hand, who like to pretend that they pay no attention at all to Israeli politics, were obviously disappointed by the outcome. They believe that the suave, eloquent Peres is a stronger leader than the cautious, dogmatic Rabin, and that he would be willing to make unpopular decisions toward peace. Still, the vote was so narrow that not even Peres, had he won, would have felt politically secure enough at home to push for such forthright negotiations with the Arabs.

The seven-week campaign for the party nomination was fought essentially around domestic issues, mostly on the specific point of whether the entrenched Labor leadership that Rabin represents still deserves, after 30 years in power, to continue leading the country. Rabin was hand-picked by Golda Meir three years ago to succeed her as Premier, and one savage Peres backer gibed last week: "I cannot understand the mechanism that every three months, when Rabin gets into some kind of trouble, the old lady is called back from the home for the aged to save his political career." Peres supporters also blamed Rabin for inflation, running at an extreme rate of 50%, and for personal taxes on Israelis that have become among the world's most onerous.

Bribes and Kickbacks. Scandal hurt too. On the day that the Labor convention opened, longtime Party Stalwart Asher Yadlin (TIME, Jan. 17) was sentenced to five years in jail and fined $28,000; in a confession that shook the nation, Yadlin admitted accepting bribes and kickbacks to the union medical programs that he ran and channeling "millions of pounds" into party coffers.

Rabin and Peres, who dislike each other personally, staged an emotional public reconciliation after the vote was announced. Peres delivered a graceful and touching concession; Rabin ended his victory speech with "The best to you, Shimon," and later announced that Peres would be in his next Cabinet--not necessarily as Defense Minister.

To win in May, Rabin badly needs the support of his defeated opponent. Labor's margin in the 120-member Knesset has gone consistently down in recent general elections: from 65 seats in 1965, it dropped to 56 in 1969 and 53 in 1973. This time around the opposition promises to do even more damage. The newly organized Democratic Movement for Change, founded by Archaeologist and onetime General Yigael Yadin, 60, is already mining a vein of popular resentment by calling for electoral reforms and an end to Israel's system of voting for slates instead of individuals, which is the keystone of Labor power. Yadin has so fired the imagination of independent voters that his embryo party could well win 20 Knesset seats. Meanwhile the older, shrewder Likud, or right-wing "union" coalition, led by Menachem Begin, 64, already holds 40 seats in the Knesset. "Rabin is an easier political enemy for us than Peres," the feisty Begin glowed after the Labor convention. "I trust his talent for shooting from the hip--and giving us a chance to nail him."

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