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ISRAEL: Suicide, Scandal and Political Chaos

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TIME

ISRAELSuicide, Scandal and Political Chaos

I have not embezzled and I have not stolen. Everything is slander and false accusation, but I do not have the strength to bear any more.

A brief and poignant suicide note last week catapulted Israel’s already turbulent political situation into chaos.

The note was found inside a Volvo parked on the isolated Tel Baruch Beach north of Tel Aviv. Inside the car was a .22-cal. revolver and the body of a man who had shot himself in the head after scribbling a final message to his wife and children, asking them to “accept this act with understanding.” The victim: Avraham Ofer, 55, Housing Minister in Premier Yitzhak Rabin’s government and a longtime Labor Party official.

The death stunned Israel. Ofer had immigrated to Palestine as a boy, grown up in a kibbutz and fought in Israel’s war for independence; he was one of the second-generation “sons of the founders,” who, Rabin promised when he became Premier 32 months ago, would give the country new direction. In a sense, Ofer’s suicide was a kind of political verdict on that generation, especially since it followed rumors that he was under investigation for possible embezzlement and other charges. Although there was no firm evidence that the accusations were true, they added to the aura of scandal that has badly damaged Rabin’s administration (see box).

The succession of scandals has led Rabin’s opponents to charge that he 28 lacks the ability to lead. That, along with rising prices, high taxes and rampant inflation, has sapped Rabin’s power to the point that he recently resigned and called for new elections (TIME, Jan. 3). Rabin was appointed caretaker Premier, and last week the Knesset formally voted a bill of dissolution and set the election for May 17. The vote, six months ahead of schedule, will almost certainly focus on domestic issues. It will also delay the resumption of serious Middle East peace talks, even though Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Syria’s Hafez Assad have mounted a strong and serious diplomatic offensive to get Israel to the bargaining table.

I Am Not Guilty. Rabin delivered the eulogy at Ofer’s funeral. Speaking to the country’s political elite at a crowded service in Tel Aviv, Rabin recalled how Ofer had come to him to discuss the accusations in what turned out to be their final meeting. “Your words still ring in my ears,” the Premier said. ‘ ‘Yitzhak,’ you told me, ‘believe me, I am not guilty of any transgressions.’ I replied to you, Avraham, that I, Yitzhak Rabin, wholly trust in your innocence.”

What Rabin omitted, however, was more tantalizing than what he said. Ofer had come to him after learning of a secret meeting on the Sabbath, convened by Rabin at his Tel Aviv apartment with his police and justice ministers. The discussion was reportedly about allegations that Ofer, who had been director-general of the vast housing-construction company Shikum Ovdim, had given choice apartments to family and friends and diverted government funds designated for land purchases from Arabs into Labor Party coffers. After Rabin’s meeting, Ofer told a friend that he had received scant satisfaction or comfort. “I’m sinking in the mud of libel and insult, and I don’t know what to do.” If Ofer was indeed innocent, some mourners wondered, why had Rabin not done more to protect his friend from innuendo?

Ofer’s suicide and its repercussions not only further damaged Rabin’s lackluster image but also benefited his potential opponents in the election. Defense Minister Shimon Peres, 53, Rabin’s bitter rival for the Labor Party nomination—and the first Cabinet member to offer condolences to Ofer’s family—has skillfully avoided the kind of personal embarrassment that has afflicted Rabin. The situation is even better for Yigael Yadin, 59, the world-renowned archaeologist and former general whose new Democratic Movement Party has gained surprising strength among intellectuals. Yadin’s persistent calls for reform are apparently scoring.

As one voter wrote to the Jerusalem Post, “I believe in Yigael Yadin, and it is my sincere belief that I represent the silent majority of this country, which is on the brink of despair and urgently wants a change.”

In desperation, Rabin last month resurrected the unsinkable Golda Meir to help him solidify Labor support. Mrs. Meir, now 78, helped Rabin win the nomination in 1974; she left retirement gladly to cut down her old political enemy Peres, who, when she was Foreign Minister and he was director-general of the Defense Ministry, infuriated her by circumventing Israeli ambassadors in France and several African nations to establish special defense relationships with those countries. Golda demanded a price to support Rabin: veto power over nominations to the party’s election list and the appointment of her protégé.

Commerce and Industry Minister and former Army Chief of Staff Haim Bar-Lev, as campaign manager—a job that Ofer held in the last election and hoped to win again. Bar-Lev is a political novice, but Ofer was also on Mrs. Meir’s enemies list for constantly fighting her and her people after Ofer defeated a Meir candidate in 1955 for the Labor Party general secretaryship in Tel Aviv. “The old lady is back,” he told TIME’S David Halevy shortly before his death, “and I am one of her first casualties.”

Watching Mrs. Meir in action again, some Laborites speculated that if Rabin appears unsavable, she might even maneuver to lead the list herself and become the dominant figure once more. Said one party insider, mindful that the 1973 war debacle forced Mrs. Meir from office before she could put her mark on a final Middle East settlement: “Golda is motivated by hate and the deepest belief that her historic role has not been accomplished yet.” Added another old antagonist: “Even her health has improved since she came back. This is worse than Mao in China.”

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