What Price for Unity?

Labor Party Leader Shimon Peres was a man of two minds last week, after President Chaim Herzog charged him with the task of forming a new government. Peres had to decide whether to join forces with outgoing Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, leader of the Likud bloc, in a broad, bipartisan coalition, or try to build a narrower alliance of his own by enticing some of the 13 smaller parties. He conferred twice with leaders of the National Religious Party in an effort to pick up enough seats for a Laborled majority; he also met twice with Shamir for talks on a government of "national unity."

The notion of a Labor-Likud coalition enjoys enthusiastic public support. But Peres may not be willing to pay the price that the Likud has set for its cooperation: it wants Shamir to stay on as Prime Minister. There are also deep differences over other issues. Labor supporters were angered last week when, with backing from the Shamir government, four Jewish families established a new settlement in the town of Hebron. Labor favors a freeze on settlements in the occupied territories, and the surprise move was certain to add another stumbling block to unity talks.