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========================== F  r  e  e  d  o  m ==========================
  auto-info: help@alquds.net  >>>> Linking Palestinians & Their Friends
=========================================================================


                   Netanyahu Faces Stormy Winter 

                   By Dan Perry 
                   Associated Press Writer 
                   Monday, October 27, 1997; 4:40
                   a.m. EST 

                   TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) -- The new
                   Knesset session that opens today
                   could herald a winter of
                   discontent for Prime Minister
                   Benjamin Netanyahu. 

                   Netanyahu, who has survived a
                   scandal-plagued 20 months in
                   office, will need all his
                   political acumen to get through
                   the legislative storms, which the
                   Maariv newspaper jokingly referred
                   to as appropriate for the year of
                   ``El Nino.'' 

                   The issues include: 

                   --A bill delegitimizing
                   conversions by non-Orthodox Jewish
                   movements whose passage would
                   alienate many U.S. Jews. 

                   --Israel's commitment to a
                   significant troop pullback in the
                   West Bank that would enrage
                   nationalists in his coalition. 

                   --An austere budget opposed by
                   coalition allies representing
                   Israel's poor. 

                   In all these cases, coalition
                   members are threatening to join
                   the dovish opposition to bring
                   down the government. Netanyahu's
                   hope: that not enough of them will
                   want to risk either losing their
                   seats in new elections or
                   returning the Labor Party to
                   power. 

                   Polls show opposition leader Ehud
                   Barak -- a former military chief
                   who was once Netanyahu's direct
                   commander in the army -- holding a
                   substantial lead. 

                   ``We are in for a stormy week and
                   a stormy session,'' said
                   parliament speaker Dan Tichon. At
                   a news conference Sunday, he
                   called on legislators to maintain
                   decorum at a time when Israel's
                   political atmosphere -- stirred at
                   the best of times -- is seething. 

                   Half the country is in a funk over
                   the collapse of the peace process.
                   Netanyahu barely escaped
                   prosecution over an
                   influence-peddling scandal a few
                   months ago. And he is still
                   dealing with fallout from a
                   botched assassination attempt
                   against a Hamas official in
                   Jordan. 

                   The latest fracas arose last week
                   when Netanyahu whispered in the
                   ears of a leading rabbi, Yitzhak
                   Kadouri, that his dovish
                   opposition ``have forgotten what
                   it means to be Jewish.'' 

                   The comments were caught by a
                   microphone, and opposition leaders
                   claimed Netanyahu was once again
                   inciting against the supporters of
                   peace, as he did before the
                   November 1995 assassination of
                   Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by an
                   ultranationalist Jew. 

                   Today, immediately after Netanyahu
                   gives a policy speech, the
                   opposition Labor and Meretz
                   parties plan to bring a
                   no-confidence motion against him.
                   That is unlikely to pass, but a
                   more substantive issue will come
                   quickly. 

                   Within days the government is to
                   present the Knesset with the $55
                   billion 1998 budget, in which
                   funds to social programs were
                   slashed drastically. 

                   The cuts are needed because of
                   declining tax revenues resulting
                   from an economic slump that
                   Netanyahu's critics attribute to
                   the decline of the peace process.
                   But they will directly affect
                   Israel's poor, who form the bulk
                   of the right-wing electorate that
                   swept him to power in May 1996. 

                   The five-member Gesher faction
                   headed by Foreign Minister David
                   Levy is threatening to bring down
                   the government unless the programs
                   are restored. The government falls
                   if the budget does not pass in the
                   Knesset by the end of the year. 

                   Levy is also threatening to resign
                   and take his faction with him over
                   the crisis in peace talks. Levy,
                   who is to head talks with the
                   Palestinians later this month,
                   wants Israel to be generous in a
                   West Bank troop pullout that is
                   due by November. 

                   But Netanyahu has said he will not
                   even carry out the pullout until
                   Yasser Arafat cracks down harder
                   on Islamic militant. 

                   Netanyahu must also contend with
                   Orthodox religious legislators who
                   control about one-third of his
                   coalition and demand immediate
                   passage of a bill that would rule
                   out recognition of conversions to
                   Judaism carried out by Reform and
                   Conservative rabbis -- whose
                   movements are dominant among U.S.
                   Jews. 

                      Copyright 1997 The Associated
                                 Press