Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Building a government

Thursday, May 27, 1999 | 9:37 a.m.

TEL AVIV -- How would you like to be elected prime minister of Israel by a large majority of the voters? Sounds great, but for me the answer would be thanks but no thanks. Because of the deep distrust of incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak won the office rather handily. Now the heavy political lifting begins as he works to put together his new government from legislators representing about 15 or more political parties. His own, One Israel party, holds only 27 seats of the 120-member Knesset. The winner has to put together, at the very least, another 34 coalition members from other parties. Optimists believe he has the opportunity to create a 75-member coalition, but only time will tell if he achieves that number for a majority.

So let's take a closer look at the makeup of the incoming Knesset, which will set new records for numbers of women and recent immigrants. The number of women will increase from nine to 14, and the number of new immigrants will increase from seven to 11. The number of Arab legislators also will rise from nine to 10, and they will come from three parties.

The greatest increase in numbers is among the philosophically opposed ultra-Orthodox Shas party, which went from 10 to 17 seats, and the Shinui party, which jumped from one seat to six. Large numbers of Israelis express concern over the strength and actions of the religious Shas party, but none have been more outspoken than Shinui leader Yosef "Tommy" Lapid. Lapid and the Meretz party leader, Yossi Sarid, have made clear that they want no part of a coalition containing the religious Shas members. Lapid told the Ha'aretz newspaper that the new Barak government doesn't have to play the religious games with the Shas. "There's a large bloc of left and center parties that can form a stable government, which will make peace and a state of western civilization, liberal and progressive and not a ghetto from the Middle Ages." On the other hand Yisrael b'Aliyah part y leader Natan Sharansky is calling for a "wide coalition."

During recent years, the secular Jews of Israel have become very upset with the religious parties that held so much power in the Netanyahu government. The men in black hats and long overcoats have been pushing more and more legislation that enforces religious practices on the public. Military draft deferments for Yeshiva students and making their own rules about who is or isn't a Jew hasn't endeared them to fellow Israelis.

The religious Shas party strongly supported Netanyahu because of its ability to use his power during the past three years. He was their champion and they stayed with him. So how do you explain Netanyahu's loss and a 70 percent gain for Shas in the new Knesset? It all comes down to the multiparty system and method of voting for parties, not individuals. Also the religious areas of Israel are well organized and vote together in large numbers. I watched this organization in action at the polls on election day in Bnei Brak. Signs reading "Netanyahu-Judaism will win" were everywhere. Large numbers of voters were moving through the school voting areas both as a civic and religious duty.

Barak is known for his quiet and deep thought when making decisions. A good indication of how his mind works is his hobby of taking clocks and watches apart and fixing them. Putting together a solid working government may prove to be more difficult than any clock he has fixed during recent years. There is no doubt he will put together a working coalition during the coming weeks. What political observers will be interested in seeing is how long it remains solid before religious and economic disagreements tear it apart.

It's my opinion that Barak's government will be built around his own party and other center parties. He will not exclude cooperating fringe groups but won't put them in key Cabinet positions they can use for their own selfish needs or can be used to blackmail Barak and other legislators.

During the past several days my conversations with Israelis from all walks of life made me believe the country doesn't want or need any more bickering in its government. There's no doubt they have seen enough war and terrorism and want peace both internally and externally. I had an interesting dinner with three fathers, all military combat veterans, who have sons now serving in the military. All of them spoke hopefully that Barak's new government will achieve his announced goal of peace. In Netanyahu they had only experienced one conflict after another when peace attempts were made. Nevertheless even Netanyahu's severest critics admit he has been successful in cutting down the number of internal terrorist attacks, but soldiers continue to die on the security border in southern Lebanon.