From: hernlem@chess.ncsu.EDU (Brad Hernlem)
Subject: Israeli left feels pinch of expulsions
Reply-To: hernlem@chess.ncsu.EDU (Brad Hernlem)
Organization: North Carolina State University
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 18:59:37 GMT

reposted from soc.culture.lebanon:
[ Article cross-posted without permission ]
	JERUSALEM (UPI) -- Leaders of Israel's left-wing Meretz Party are
fighting desperately to retain their political influence and liberal
image even though they backed last week's unprecedented mass expulsion
of 415 Muslim fundamentalists.
	Meretz, the minority partner in a Labor Party-led coalition
government, sent a list of demands Tuesday to Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin urging a show of flexibility to balance the internationally
condemned deportations. Rabin showed little interest.
	The list calls for the return of an unspecified number of elderly
Palestinians banished before last week, the easing of daily conditions
for residents of the occupied territories and the opening of direct
negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organization.
	In the June general election, Meretz became the third strongest
faction in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, winning 12 seats. The party
campaigned for reduced religious influence in public life, intensified
peace efforts and the combating of human rights violations against
Palestinians in the territories.
	So the party's own members were alarmed when their leaders went along
with the Rabin's crackdown on the Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations.
	Until last week, Israel had expelled a total of 66 Palestinians
during the 5-year old intifada, the uprising in the territories, all
carried out under governments headed by Yitzhak Shamir of the right-wing
Likud party.
	Then came Rabin. In one fell swoop, a government perceived as dovish
ordered a mass expulsion that was more than six times the previous
total.
	While endorsing the deportations as a necessary show of strength
against the Muslim militants, Meretz deputy Yossi Sarid said it needed
to be accompanied by a carrot for the Palestinians.
	``The second half (of the expulsions) must be a direct dialogue with
the PLO,'' Sarid said. ``If not, we are talking about a half-done job.''
	But Rabin, facing a tide of international criticism over the
deportations, has thus far given no signs of new flexibility. Instead,
he has increased the pressure on Meretz by signaling renewed interest in
Tsomet, a hard-line party that holds eight seats in the Knesset but
opposes concessions in Arab-Israeli peace efforts.
	In supporting the expulsions, the top leaders of Meretz -- Education
Minister Shulamit Aloni, Absorption Minister Yair Tsaban and Energy
Minister Amnon Rubinstein -- adopted Rabin's argument that the measure
was necessary to shore up Israeli security in the face of Hamas and
Islamic Jihad attacks that had killed a border policeman and five
soldiers in just over a week.
	Judging from a statement the Meretz faction released after the
decision, the spate of killings, the prospect of being left out in the
cold in a Labor-Tsomet alliance, and Hamas's uncompromising opposition
to the Middle East peace talks all contributed to the decision to back
Rabin.
	``The step of expulsion is an evil step, but in light of the security
situation it is a necessary evil. The responsibility for the expulsion
lies with Hamas, which is conducting a bloody campaign to destroy the
state of Israel, break up the peace process and eliminate Palestinian
moderates,'' the statement said.
	The leadership's stance has been repudiated by rank-and-file members
of the party, who charge a sell-out of their principles and voted in the
party's council Friday to condemn the expulsions. Aloni, who once
remarked that she would lie down on a highway to block buses if mass
removal of Palestinians was ever carried out, said she was ``very proud''
of the party's young guard. ``It shows they have been educated well.''
	A caricature in the daily newspaper Ha'aretz printed after the
deportations depicted the Labor-Meretz government as a dove peeling off
its skin and being transformed into a hawk, reflecting the fears of the
left-wing electorate.
	Ran Cohen, deputy housing minister and one of five Meretz legislators
to oppose the expulsions, said: ``It is a good thing that the next
elections will not be for a while. Maybe by then our voters will be able
to judge us on whether we succeeded overall in achieving progress
towards peace, greater economic justice, and making Israeli society more
democratic.''
	The party received another blow when dovish philosopher Yeshayahu
Leibovitz, 90, who is admired by some Meretz leaders, said on national
television that Aloni, Tsaban and Rubinstein were violating Palestinian
rights. He also said their backing for the deportations ``has revealed
them to be a bunch of dishrags.''
	Meretz's Dedi Zucker fired back that being in power means choosing
between unpleasant alternatives, telling the philosopher: ``You were
never forced to make a decision in a difficult situation.''


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