A Fight in The Family

By William E. Smith

Before Israel's independence in 1948, Menachem Begin used to describe his comrades in the Irgun underground who were warring against the British as the "fighting family." Last week Begin's Herut Party, which the former Prime Minister dominated for almost four decades, demonstrated that it was still ready for a fight. This time, however, the family members spent most of their time battling one another. The result: a schism within Herut, the backbone of the right-wing Likud bloc, between the followers of Party Leader Yitzhak Shamir, who is also Foreign Minister, and the combined forces of Deputy Prime Minister David Levy and Industry and Trade Minister Ariel Sharon. The melee raised questions not only about the future of Herut and Likud but about the ability of Shamir to take over as Prime Minister in October under the terms of his coalition agreement with Labor Prime Minister Shimon Peres.

The convention ended in a shambles of fisticuffs and name-calling. The apparent loser was Shamir, who failed to win a vote of confidence. "You'll never be Prime Minister!" shouted his opponents. Shamir insisted that he would not accept the post anyway if his party did not support him. Unless Shamir can quickly find a way to undo the damage, the crisis within Herut may yet provide Peres with the excuse he needs to seek a mandate to form a government without Likud.

Because Begin refused to groom a successor within Herut, a power struggle at last week's convention was probably inevitable. Shamir, bolstered by a letter of support from Begin, who remained in seclusion at his Jerusalem home, won the first round when a Shamir loyalist, Minister of Labor Moshe Katzav, was elected convention chairman. He lost the second when Sharon defeated Shamir's candidate, Begin's son Benny, 43, a political neophyte, for chairmanship of the committee that controls the selection of delegates.

The showdown would have come in the third round, which pitted Shamir's candidate, Minister Without Portfolio Moshe Arens, against Levy for the chairmanship of the convention steering committee. Instead, the convention ground to a halt when Sharon tried to pack it with 200 pro-Sharon and pro-Levy delegates. Addressing Sharon, Shamir demanded: "Do you think being chairman of the mandates committee is the same thing as being a front commander or Chief of Staff?" Shamir accused Levy of "megalomania" and described the convention as a "circus." Scoffed Levy: "Shamir's behavior is better suited to Disneyland."

The climax came at 1:30 a.m. last Thursday, after Convention Chairman Katzav had called a recess. While Shamir's supporters were out of the hall, the Levy-Sharon forces seized control, installing Knesset Member David Magen, a Sharon supporter, in Katsav's place. Magen quickly won a vote of acceptance for the 200 new Sharon delegates, then adjourned the convention. Said Sharon: "I think you saw here democracy." Katzav returned but could not regain control. A furious Shamir, flanked by security men, left the hall.

Hours later, Shamir appealed for an agreement to resume the convention within a few weeks. Labor Party leaders, for their part, maintained a discreet silence, but they were said to be discussing the developments with the smaller political parties that have supported Likud in the past. The pro-Labor Jerusalem Post asked how Herut could be considered fit to govern when its leaders accused one another of being "power-mad cheats, liars, vote riggers, megalomaniacs and, all in all, criminals." At his home on Zemach Street, Menachem Begin kept his own counsel but was reportedly distraught at the Herut bloodletting. --By William E. Smith. Reported by Robert Slater/Jerusalem

With reporting by Robert Slater/Jerusalem