ZIONISM UNITED OR "COLLECTIVE SUICIDE" FOR LEFT-WING ZIONIST?

"If there is a national unity government, it will be evident that the differences between Labour as the main branch of the left and the Likud as the main branch of the right are not that big." Eli Goldschmidt Barak Campaign Head of Publicity

"You are a man of peace, a man of truth. Don't give him [Sharon] legitimacy around the world." Yossi Beilin screaming at Shimon Peres

The basic reality is that the differences between the two major wings of Zionism, Labor and Revisionist (Likud), have always been more stylistic, more cosmetic, more personality, than principled. That explains much of the past of course, and also now explains why it was so easy for a triumphant Ariel Sharon to immediately turn to the top figures in labor, Barak and Peres, both personal friends for a very long time, to come to his Cabinet in senior positions -- no matter what the final outcome of this gambit.

We predicted many weeks ago that Israel's Labor Party, dominant as it has been going back to the days of Ben-Gurion and Israel's founding, may well be coming to an end and splitting into piecesment as Revisionist Zionism -- i.e, the most militant and racist form -- triumphs in ways hardy imaginable just a short time ago.

LABOUR REELS AS COALITION TALKS SPLIT ISRAELI LEFT

[The Guardian - 12 Feb]: The Labour party, the erstwhile bastion of the Israeli establishment, appeared to be heading towards collective suicide yesterd ay with deep splits opening over the prospect of an alliance with the hardline prime minister-elect, Ariel Sharon.

As Shimon Peres, Labour's elder statesman, declared yesterday his willingness to serve Mr Sharon as foreign minister in a national unity coalition, several figures in the party, including its leading dove, Yossi Beilin, were poised to make their exit.

"We have in the Labour party a leadership crisis," Eli Goldschmidt said.

Mr Goldschmidt resigned from parliament in spectacular fashion last week, saying the party was a "den of backstabbers", who put personal ambitions before the interests of the party and the country.

Another Labour leader, Uzi Baram, also announced his resignation yesterday after nearly 25 years in parliament, saying the party needed to rebuild after the devastating defeat of the prime minister, Ehud Barak, in last week's elections.

"I believe there is a real need for a change of generations," Mr Baram said. "The party has to set a new platform and work towards reviving itself after the blow we received."

It may have to do so without Mr Beilin, who began discussions yesterday for the formation of a new social democratic force with the leftwing Meretz party.

Never a cohesive force, Labour's divisions became starkly apparent during the election campaign, with key figures - including Mr Peres - working behind the scenes to bring down Mr Barak.

"I am sure that more than one or two members of the [Labour] leadership were happier than Ariel Sharon himself with the election results," Mr Goldschmidt, in charge of publicity for Mr Barak's campaign, said.

With negotiations underway for a unity government, those ugly rivalries have been exposed to full public view. But many argue that a coalition with Mr Sharon could prove even more damaging, by robbing Labour of its one selling point: its willingness to make the painful compromises needed for a peace deal with the Palestinians.

"If there is a national unity government, it will be evident that the differences between Labour as the main branch of the left and the Likud as the main branch of the right are not that big," Mr Goldschmidt said.

Mr Barak, who led a second session of coalition talks with Mr Sharon yesterday, thinks otherwise. Yesterday, he led the Israeli cabinet in disowning the compromises offered to the Palestinians at last month's talks in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Taba.

Mr Peres also supports the Likud stand against picking up negotiations where they left off, as the Palestinians demand.

"It is important for the country and for the nation to have peace," Mr Peres told Israel Radio yesterday. "Labour has to follow the needs of the country."

But that stand has infuriated the stalwarts of the left in Labour, including Mr Beilin, the foreign minister Shlomo Ben Ami, and the peace activist Yael Dayan.

At a recent party meeting, Mr Beilin rounded on Mr Peres, screaming: "You are a man of peace, a man of truth. Don't give him [Sharon] legitimacy around the world." Israeli commentators now predict that a unity coalition, which looked like a very real possibility yesterday, could kill off Labour entirely. "The birth of such a government could well signal the death of the Labour party," the Ha'aretz columnist Akiva Eldar said.

Mr Sharon is desperate to form a national unity government to achieve some measure of stability.

His Likud party has just 19 seats in the badly fractured 120-seat parliament that he inherited from Mr Barak. However, Mr Sharon faces pressure from Labour to moderate his hardline stance by agreeing to a freeze on Jewish settlements in Palestinian areas. He is also being asked to spell out his policies for negotiations with the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat.

"We want to see if Mr Sharon really has a policy of pursuing peace," Ophir Pines-Paz, a Labour representative in the coalition negotiations, said.