Bitter internal disputes within Likud’s Liberal Party wing came to the fore today when a group of five Knesset members, headed by Energy Minister Yitzhak Modai, announced the formation of an independent faction within the party.
The decision to seek separate status was adopted by a large majority of Modai’s supporters in a secret ballot. The four other MKs in the new group are Deputy Minister of Agriculture Pessah Grupper, Benny Shalita, Pinhas Goldstein and Yehuda Perah. The Modai group is definitely hawkish in its views, It could, theoretically, bring down the government over policy differences.
It is expected to demand to be consulted separately on all coalition decisions. Grupper want so far as to warn Premier Menachem Begin that if he refuses, “there will be trouble for the coalition. ” Modai himself sharply attacked elements of his party yesterday as “an anarchy, a leaderless group that employed “unethical political methods to gain power.” He threatened to expose them “unless they are stopped immediately. “
The Liberals appear now to be sharply divided between Modai’s faction and its dove-ish MKs, Yitzhak Berman and Dror Seigermann. Berman, a former Minister of Energy who resigned from the Begin government last year, warned that if the Liberals split into two factions he would belong to neither. He suggested yesterday the formation of a center bloc to include members of the opposition Shinui faction.
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