(2 of 2)
One was the determination of the ultranationalist Gush Emunim group of settlers to defy a Supreme Court order that had declared its West Bank settlement at Elon Moreh illegal. Begin had grown despondent over the problem because he feared that if troops were ordered to evict the settlers forcibly, the clash might even lead to civil war in Israel. Last week, however, Begin offered the Gush Emunim an alternate site five miles away and finally persuaded the group to relent and evacuate Elon Moreh peaceably by the end of the year.
Begin managed to defer, if not resolve, his other crisis with a calculated political gamble. At issue is a quarrel within his own shaky Likud coalition over proposed changes in Israel's liberal abortion law; the Orthodox religious Agudat Israel Party wants tougher legislation. Faced with Agudat's threat to pull out of the coalition, which would reduce his parliamentary majority to a single vote in the 120-member Knesset, Begin scheduled a vote of confidence on the abortion issue for next week. If he loses, Begin will have to resign and call an election. But he is gambling that pro-abortion defectors from his coalition will come back to the fold when the fate of the government is on the line. As Begin mused last week: "Wouldn't it be ironic if the government that brought peace with Egypt should fall over an issue like abortion?"
Begin appeared to be taking another gamble with an economic austerity program launched by Finance Minister Yigael Hurvitz. In an attempt to curtail Israel's 100% inflation, Hurvitz has ruthlessly eliminated subsidies on basic foodstuffs, frozen state development programs until 1981, and proposed to slash $200 million from the sacrosanct Israeli defense budget. The Finance Minister also wiped out 10% of the government's limousine fleet and pledged an all-out battle against upper-income tax evasion. Although there were protest marches in Israel's major cities after the subsidy cuts were announced, Begin is hoping that the attack on the rich will placate the lower-income Israelis, who form the government's main base of support.