
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 15, 1990                   TAG: 9003152143
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: JERUSALEM                                 LENGTH: Medium

MOMENT OF TRUTH DAWNS FOR TOTTERING ISRAELI GOVERNMENT

The rival Likud and Labor factions in the teetering unity government bargained feverishly with four small religious parties Wednesday in a struggle for power centered on U.S. proposals to launch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

With 18 members of parliament, the religious parties are expected to determine whether the Likud-controlled government can turn back nine no-confidence motions today.

The religious party members are the swing votes in parliament, if the Likud bloc holds the right-wing members and if Labor holds the left. The Likud itself has 40 members of parliament, while Labor has 39.

If a majority of those voting in the 120-member parliament approves a no-confidence motion, the government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, the Likud leader, is finished and a new coalition will have to be formed. In that case, the current government will remain as a transitional body until a new coalition is formed by Labor or the Likud, which requires at least 61 votes in parliament.

Even if the government survives the no-confidence votes, the Likud will try to patch together a new coalition.

In either situation, Labor stands to be out of the government altogether because Shamir's firing Monday of Vice Premier Shimon Peres, the finance minister and Labor Party leader, and the resignations that followed of the 10 remaining Labor ministers take effect before parliament decides on the no-confidence motions.

A possible last-minute compromise was in the air Wednesday night. Leaders of the Degel Hatora (Torah Flag) Party, one of the religious parties, announced their two members of parliament would vote to preserve the government.

Degel Hatora wants to preserve the government as long as Shamir agrees to bring Peres and the other Labor ministers back to their posts.

If Shamir survives today's votes due to Degel Hatora's help but fails to bring Labor back into the government, the religious party vows to bring its own no-confidence motion before parliament and vote against Shamir.

Rabbi Avraham Ravitz, a Degel Hatora member of parliament, told Israel Radio the unity government is the only way to move the peace process forward. Degel Hatora proposes a compromise under which the government would accept the U.S.-backed conditions for starting peace talks in Cairo.

At the same time, the government would send U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III a letter saying Labor and the Likud disagree about whether East Jerusalem Palestinians should be able to vote in proposed elections in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

By some scorecards, Degel Hatora's two votes will determine whether the Likud wins or loses the no-confidence motions.

The vote is so close that Labor is believed to have 60 votes to topple Shamir and what remains of the government.

But under that scenario, if Degel Hatora votes with the Likud, the result would be a 60-60 tie, which would defeat the motions and save the government.

Israel Radio reported that Peres had agreed to the Degel Hatora compromise, but the Shamir camp was not talking.

by CNB