Shamir's Exquisite Dilemma

By Jon D. Hull/Jerusalem

Yitzhak Shamir is virtually besieged. Infuriated American Jewish leaders have descended on Jerusalem to berate the Prime Minister for promising to meddle with Israel's definition of who is a Jew. Thousands of angry calls and letters flooded his office, and secular Israelis took to the streets to denounce religious coercion. Acknowledged one Shamir aide: "I'd say he's got a bit of a problem on his hands. Blood pressures are soaring."

The unprecedented uproar from U.S. Jews complicates Shamir's exquisite dilemma. His Likud bloc must either embrace the religious and right-wing parties to form a narrow coalition at odds with most American Jews, or entice the Labor Party into a broad coalition that would dilute Likud's strong-arm policies toward the Palestinians. After four weeks of marathon negotiations, the Prime Minister has yet to make the choice.

Shamir sparked the fire storm by promising to amend Israel's Law of Return, which grants automatic citizenship to any Jew. Shamir professes little personal interest in the details of Jewish conversion; his courtship of the religious parties simply reflects his determination to control the government.

The current law defines a Jew as anyone born of a Jewish mother or converted by a rabbi, regardless of whether the rabbi was Orthodox, Conservative or Reform. The new version would legitimize only Orthodox conversions. Most American Jews have no intention of emigrating to Israel, but they consider the symbolic slap profoundly insulting. The vast majority of U.S. Jews identify with the Conservative and Reform branches, and believe their religious legitimacy would be challenged. They also fear diminished support for a radicalized Israel. "This is something of an endeavor to make Israel more of a theocratic state," says Rabbi Alexander Schindler, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. "Psychologically it is damaging. It says some Jews are more equal than others."

A safer alternative for Shamir might be to lure Labor into a broad coalition. But the party would be a junior partner, and the opening round of talks proved humiliating for its leader, Shimon Peres. "It's a joke," said Labor Party member Yossi Beilin. "They need us as a fig leaf, and their demands are impossible."

At a minimum, Labor wants the Defense post for Yitzhak Rabin, who held it in the previous government, and either Finance or the Foreign Ministry for Peres. Shamir would happily retain Rabin at Defense, but he has yet to offer Peres a major portfolio. Says a senior Likud member: "If Shamir gives Finance and Defense to Labor, he really gives up control of the government."

Labor's young guard would prefer to go into opposition and let voters experience a right-wing religious government. But Peres and Rabin are not eager to relinquish power for the sake of ideology. For Peres the personal element is very strong: banishment to the opposition could prove fatal to his political career. For Shamir the price could be no less high. If he fulfills the promise he made to the ultra-Orthodox, he risks making enemies of America's 6 million Jews.