The Lesson of Elon Moreh

More shocks follow Moshe Dayan 's resignation ''I told the Premier that we are subjecting our people to daily shocks.'' lamented an aide to Menachem Begin. ''and we have gone well beyond their ability to absorb those shocks.'' So it seemed.

Moshe Dayan had resigned as Foreign Minister in basic disagreement over Israeli policy for the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. A day later, the country's Supreme Court struck a body blow at the Begin government's policy of permitting Jewish settlements to be established in the West Bank on the pretext that they strengthen Israel's ''security.''

The same day, the government removed the subsidies for cooking oil and other household products, and prices for those items jumped by 50%. During a stormy session of the Knesset, where the ruling Likud coalition now has a majority of only six seats, Begin survived a series of no-confidence motions. But observers were predicting that it was only a matter of time before the beleaguered Premier would be obliged to call new elections.

Perhaps the only mystery in the Dayan affair was why he remained in the Begin government as long as he did. Dayan had made no secret of the fact that he disagreed with Begin's hard-line policy in dealing with the Palestinians. He genuinely want ed to reach some kind of agreement with the Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza over their future relations with Israel (see box); Begin seemed content to let the status quo drift on forever. Because of this disagreement, Dayan refused to head the Israeli delegation in the autonomy talks. In he was further iso lated from the negotiations by illness he underwent surgery for removal of a malignant intestinal tumor).

Since then, Dayan has chafed at the performance of the Israeli delegation under Interior Minister Yosef Burg, a hardliner who was chosen to placate the National Religious Party and other right-wing members of the Likud coalition. The Foreign Minister, as Dayan acidly put it, was left to handle such marginal matters as "cocktails and ceremonies." He had played a vital role in the negotiations that led to the Camp David accords last year, and he reacted angrily to being on the sidelines this time. Even if he had not resigned, Dayan would not have attended last week's meeting in London between Burg, Egyptian Premier Mustafa Khalil and U.S. Negotiator Robert Strauss, who is eager to get the autonomy talks back on track. At week's end Strauss reported that there had been some progress in the negotiations. The three parties agreed that elections in the West Bank and Gaza need not be carried out under international supervision, but instead would be run by Palestinian and Israeli officials.

Essentially, Dayan's disagreement with Begin was ideological. He accepted a Cabinet decision last May that the Israelis would not allow the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. But he disagreed profoundly with Begin's view that, at the end of the five-year autonomy period specified by the Camp David accords, Israel would insist on pursuing its claim of sovereignty over those Arab-populated areas. Two years ago, Begin agreed to leave the disputed question of sovereignty unresolved. Now the Premier was taking a tougher line, and Dayan felt that he could not go along with it. "That is why I resigned and why Begin accepted it," Dayan said last week, "understanding as he did that we don't see eye to eye on this important question."

In the best of times, Dayan's resignation would have been a blow to the Begin government. His defection was made doubly bitter when the Supreme Court declared the West Bank settlement of Elon Moreh illegal and ordered its evacuation within 30 days. The settlement had been established last June by members of the fanatical ultranationalist Gush Emunim movement, aided by Israeli army vehicles and air force helicopters. A week later, the court was petitioned by 17 Arabs whose land had been seized for the development. Under the prodding of Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon, the Cabinet supported the establishment of Elon Moreh by a vote of 8 to 5. Among the dissenters: Dayan and Defense Minister Ezer Weizman. Begin was absent from the meeting, but he told his supporters: ''Ever since the concept of law took root in the human race, there was no more legal an act than Jewish settlement in all parts of the Jewish homeland.''

On an earlier occasion he vowed: ''There will be many more Elon Morehs.''

In arguments before the Supreme Court, the government tried to justify the settlement, which is located on a rocky hill overlooking the Arab town of Nablus (pop. 70,000), as essential to Israeli security. But several military experts, including former Army Chief of Staff Haim Bar-Lev, disagreed. On the contrary, they testified, the settlement might actually hinder military operations in the area because of its proximity to Nablus. The court agreed and, in a landmark decision, ruled unanimously that the settlement was illegal.

The decision left Menachem Begin with a serious dilemma. A spokesman for the Cabinet promised that the court's decision would be obeyed. But how the evacuation order is carried out might offend the National Religious Party and other components of his coalition. Hotheads of the Gush Emunim were threatening last week to call up 50,000 people to fight with the army over Elon Moreh. To appease them, Begin talked about finding another settlement site on public land and of accelerating a plan to develop six new settlements on the West Bank. That in turn may persuade Ariel Sharon to try to convince his Gush Emunim supporters that Begin's proposal should be accepted and that they should avoid a clash with the army.

Whatever happens in the immediate future, Begin has plenty of trouble on his hands. His citizenry is dispirited, his country's inflation rate is running at about 100%, and the popularity of the opposition Labor Party is once more on the rise. The lesson of Elon Moreh is that the aspirations of a few thousand nationalist fanatics do not necessarily coincide with the needs of the Israeli people. But it is a lesson that Menachem Begin does not appear ready or willing to accept.

Further evidence of the Israeli government's sensitivity on the Palestinian question came to light last week when it became known that a ministerial censorship committee had prevented former Premier Yitzhak Rabin from including in his memoirs a first-person account of the expulsion of 50,000 Palestinian civilians from their homes near Tel Aviv during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Some of Rabin's former colleagues disputed his account; the censors' action was presumably based on the argument that any discussion of the subject by former officials tends to damage Israel's reputation overseas and to bolster Arab claims to territory that has long since become part of Israel.

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