Drama on Two Disparate Fronts

By William E. Smith

Sharon makes a political comeback, and terrorists strike again

As the fully loaded bus left Tel Aviv, Passenger Nissim Cohen became suspicious of four young Arabs aboard the vehicle, two at the front and two at the back. Cohen noticed that the men, who had two suitcases among them, appeared tense and never spoke to one another. He mentioned his fears to an army officer, but was urged to calm down. Finally, after the bus had passed Ashdod, 19 miles south of Tel Aviv, Cohen jumped off and called police. Moments later, the four men announced that they were armed with explosives and were taking over the bus. "We are at war," said one. "Your people are killing our women and children. You are our prisoners, and we will kill you."

The bus raced on toward the Egyptian border, smashing through two roadblocks before being brought to a halt by Israeli marksmen who shot out its tires. As helicopters flew in with special crack units and medical teams, directed by Defense Minister Moshe Arens and Chief of Staff Moshe Levy, the terrorists demanded the release of 25 Palestinians being held in Israeli jails. At 4:45 a.m. Friday, before the first rays of light hit the surrounding palm trees, Israeli commandos burst in through the rear window and two doors, killing all four hijackers. One passenger died, seven were injured and 31 escaped unhurt. Scarcely three hours later, the Israeli army retaliated by destroying the homes of the dead terrorists, who were Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

During the entire episode, the government had maintained an internal news blackout. As a result, Israelis were preoccupied that night by a drama of a very different kind that was unfolding at the exhibition grounds convention center in Tel Aviv. There, at a meeting of the central committee of the Herut Party, the main group within the ruling Likud bloc, former Defense Minister Ariel Sharon was challenging Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir for the party leadership.

Shamir won, as expected, and thus became the Likud's candidate for Prime Minister in the July 23 elections. But the big surprise was that Sharon got 42% of the delegates' votes to Shamir's 56%. Most political observers had expected Sharon to win a mere 10% to 15%. It was a remarkable comeback for a man who was forced to resign as Defense Minister last year after the government-appointed Kahan commission concluded that he had made "a grave mistake when he ignored the danger of acts of revenge and bloodshed" by Lebanese Phalangists against Arab civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps outside Beirut in September 1982. Might Sharon's strong showing last week put him in a position to regain his old defense job? "Not to be excluded," boasted his close associate Uri Dan, who recalled that after publication of the Kahan report he had said, "Those who didn't want Sharon as Minister of Defense will get him as Prime Minister."

Contributing heavily to Sharon's strong showing was the absence of 235 of the 950 members of the Herut Party's central committee. Some of the absentees were disgruntled supporters of Deputy Prime Minister David Levy, who had failed in his bid for the top post after the resignation of former Prime Minister Menachem Begin last August; others were Shamir supporters who figured their candidate would win handily. Begin, who has not been seen in public for months, did not attend the party meeting.

Throughout the day and night, the

Prime Minister maintained a stoic calm as he kept abreast of the antiterrorist operation and learned the seriousness of Sharon's challenge. The fundamental problem was not the vote itself but the nagging question of what to do with Sharon if Likud wins the elections. Said a Shamir colleague: "I'm sure Sharon will be a Minister. He has support and cannot be ignored." The opposition Labor Party, led by former Defense Minister Shimon Peres, saw an unexpected opportunity in the vote. Said Labor Secretary-General Haim Bar-Lev: "The Herut's support for Shamir is embarrassing."

The Reagan Administration has been doing its best to stay out of the Israeli election campaign, although it is an open secret that Washington would welcome a Labor victory. U.S. officials hope that a Labor-led government in Jerusalem would quickly conclude a withdrawal from Lebanon and, more important, revive Reagan's Middle East peace plan of September 1982 by making "creative overtures" to Jordan. U.S.-Israel relations have vastly improved since Shamir succeeded Begin, and Shamir has done a number of things that the U.S. approves of. He has, for instance, made some progress in controlling Jewish terrorists who attack Arabs on the West Bank, even as he has had to contend with a series of Palestinian terrorist acts within Israel. Late last week Shamir vowed to continue to retaliate against Palestinian guerrillas for the hijacking of the bus. "We will strike them and destroy them," he declared Friday night.*

But the Shamir government is in deep trouble on economic issues. Israel has an inflation rate of nearly 300% and a trade deficit of $5.1 billion. By the government's admission, the new budget is expected to produce a 7% drop in the standard of riving over the next year. The latest polls, taken before the Herut leadership vote, showed Labor winning 52 of the Knesset's 120 seats, vs. 41 for the Likud.

But Israeli voters are notoriously unpredictable, as they proved in 1981 when they defied all forecasts and handed Begin a second mandate.

--By William E. Smith.

Reported by David Halevy and Robert Slater/Jerusalem

* Shamir scored a minor diplomatic victory last week when El Salvador announced that it would become the second nation (after Costa Rica) to move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

With reporting by David Halevy and Robert Slater/Jerusalem