GOLDA MUST GO

To the Editors of The Crimson:

I would like to correct two misquotations in The Crimson's Dec. 18 report of my talk at Lowell house. Your correspondant attributed to me the following two observations: "The people blame Golda for two things: first, in sanctioning open trade and the importation of cheap Arab labor along the west bank she has encouraged exploitation of the workers, he said." I never said this. "Secondly, by continuing in power, she has also made possible the continuation of that stance which led us to the October war. The people are afraid of what seems to be a 'hard-line' stance. We do not want to encourage the fighting, he said."

However, what I actually said was the following: Golda is to be blamed for two misdeeds: first, her tacit alliance with the Likud (the rightist allignment) is in principle and in practice a violation of the Socialist, moderate, peace-oriented tradition of the Labor party and an unprecedented challenge to the majority of Labor's voters whose social and political ideology disagree with such previous policies as Dayan's 'crawling annexation' of the occupied territories which culminated in the notorious 'Gallili document'; the encouragement of a process which will enable Arab (cheap or expansive labor under Israeli management, and the cultivation of the young Israeli nouveau riche sector who profited immensly from the enormous defense expenditures in the last six years. Secondly, Golda's endurance as no.1 in Labor's candidate list is a continuation of the pre-October war formal political fabric in sharp disregard of the material change which the war generated in Israel's political options; a change that was encouraged precisely by the economic and political policies of Golda, Dayan and Gallili who were not compelled to pay the obvious democratic price and to resign prior to the forth-coming elections. I argued however, that in spite of this failure to change the Labor's leadership prior to the election, the Likud is not going to score such significant gains as to be able to establish a government under Mr. Begin's leadership, but those gains which the Right will make are due to Golda's continuation as Labor's no. 1 rather than because the Israeli voter has shifted in any respects to the Right. Thus Golda, Dayan and Gallili are responsible not only for the economic and political climate that made especially the first three days of the October was possible, but also for the difficulties within Labor to drive and implement the necessary lessons of the leadership's policies in the last six years.

On the basis of these two observations I suggested that the meaningful change in Israel's politics should not be expected to take place in the election but a few months after it within the Labor party, when Golda will have to give up the premiership, probably to Yigal Alon, followed by Dayan's resignation and Gallili's departure from Israel's political map. Shmuel Harlap