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Friday November 21, 1997

Netanyahu ends travel abroad as tensions stir in Israel

NAOMI SEGAL
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has probably had better weeks.

During a whirlwind overseas trip which concluded Tuesday in London, the premier faced the beginnings of a mutiny in his own Likud Party while he was addressing American Jewish leaders in the United States.

After Tuesday's meeting in London with Jordan's King Hussein, Netanyahu returned home, where some Likud legislators were seeking to oust him as party leader and, perhaps, topple his government.

Netanyahu, speaking at a news conference Monday in Beverly Hills, said that it was no secret that some people dislike him, but that after he returned to Israel, he would "fix what needs to be fixed."

Netanyahu also said he expected to meet in December with President Clinton, who some observers believed snubbed the Israeli leader by not seeing him this week.

The current crisis in Iraq was the catalyst for Netanyahu's conference with Hussein. The hastily arranged meeting brought the leaders of Israel and Jordan together for the first time since a bungled Mossad operation two months ago.

Meeting at Hussein's private residence in London, the Jordanian leader urged Netanyahu to stay out of a possible showdown between the United States and Iraq.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein provoked the crisis when he barred Americans from serving on U.N. weapons inspection teams that have monitored Iraqi weapons stockpiles since the end of the 1991 Gulf War.

During that war, Iraq fired missiles at Israel in hopes of provoking a retaliation, which would likely have shattered the Arab coalition against Iraq. Israel, which came under heavy pressure at the time from the United States, did not retaliate.

But officials in the Netanyahu government said this week they would not show the same restraint if fired upon again.

Israeli officials said that King Hussein had initiated the meeting with Netanyahu, their first since relations between the two countries hit a nadir after Israeli intelligence agents carried out a botched assassination attempt in September on a Hamas leader in the Jordanian capital of Amman.

Netanyahu was in London last weekend before he flew to the United States to address the General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations in Indianapolis on Sunday night.

From there he traveled to Los Angeles, where he addressed local Jewish leaders, the World Affairs Council and presented an award to actor Kirk Douglas at a fund-raising event for a Jerusalem yeshiva.

In the midst of a morning press conference in Beverly Hills, Netanyahu excused himself for 15 minutes to speak with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and to express his sympathy on the killing of more than 60 tourists in a terrorist attack in Luxor.

Later, he cut his stay in California by one day to fly to London.

In recent days, Netanyahu has said that President Clinton was right to stand firm against the Iraqi leader. But Netanyahu repeatedly made it clear that he believed the greatest long-term threat -- to Europe and the United States as well as to Israel -- came from Iran.

In Israel, meanwhile, disgruntled Likud Knesset members are considering ways to oust Netanyahu as leader of the party.

If successful, the campaign, led by Tel Aviv Mayor Ronnie Milo, could trigger new elections.

"We will see some dramatic developments on the political scene very soon," Milo told Army Radio on Monday.

"I'm talking about significant changes in the leadership of the Likud. Nothing will be kept a secret on this matter."

Among possible replacements for Netanyahu at the helm of a reconstituted Likud Party, the media suggested Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, Communications Minister Limor Livnat, former Science Minister Ze'ev "Benny" Begin and former Finance Minister Dan Meridor.

Some party stalwarts' dissatisfaction with Netanyahu's leadership style turned to public anger last week after the Likud Party convention of 2,700 delegates voted to cancel party primaries and place the selection of Knesset election lists in the hands of the party's Central Committee, which is stacked with Netanyahu supporters.

Cabinet Ministers accused Netanyahu of playing a double game -- publicly urging the convention to put off a vote on the matter, while giving backers the green light to continue pressing the matter among activists.

The outcry was further fueled by media reports this week that Netanyahu's right-hand man, Avigdor Lieberman, who serves as director of the Prime Minister's Office, had ordered the videotaping of opponents to last week's initiative.

Milo said that "longtime members of the movement underwent a major crisis" after they "saw what happened at the Likud convention."

The Likud caucus convened a stormy session Monday, where Knesset members lashed out at Netanyahu. Begin accused the prime minister of wanting to attain power and total control at all costs, including deceiving the ministers.

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