European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 20, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes thursday March 20, 1986 William Safire can Sharon play peacemaker for troubled liked step with me into the tumultuous complicated fun filled world of politics As practice in the democracy called Israel. Prime minister Shimon Peres of the labor party has a contract to turn Over the top Job to his coalition partner. Yitzhak Shamir of the liked later this year. But the rotation Deal was a personal one the promised shift in Power for two years is to Shamir himself not to whomever right wingers choose to head their party. Shamir the longtime no. 2 Man to my Nachum begin shrewdly set it up that Way to protect his leadership from Chal Lenge by younger right wingers from sephardic Spain and Portugal rather than Central Liuro can backgrounds. The would be successors to Shamir s leadership of the right include Ariel Sha Ron time Magazine s least favorite israeli and David Levy who has wider support but is less Well known in the United states because he Speaks no English. Both sought an agreement with Shamir for him to assume the prime minister ship this fall and then to announce his intention to retire at the end of his two years in office. Nothing doing said Shamir that would make him a lame Duck. Although Anthony Lewis recent pictures make him look frail he s a Frisky 70 and wants to run again. At the recent convention of Herat the party dominating the right Wing the two challengers joined forces to push out the Man who will not pledge to step aside. In the first vote for chairman of the convention of nearly 2,000 delegates the Shamir Man squeaked through. In the Sec , to head the credentials commit tee the redoubtable Sharon beat begin s son Benjamin a Shamir Man. The rubber match As tensions Rose pitted Levy against Moshe Arens the for Mer defense minister and ambassador to the United states who is seen As next in the begin Shamir line for the top Job in forming the party s Central committee. At that Point when the Sharon Levy forces tried to accredit a few Hundred More supporters the convention got out of hand and broke up in acrimony. In the chaos and its aftermath Shamir about 50 percent of the convention and Levy 35 percent denounced each other with much heat while Sharon 15 percent wisely said Little. It sounds like the 1964 Rockefeller Goldwater fracas in san Francisco s cow Palace or the democratic convention in Chicago in 1968, with this difference the prime minister ship is coming to the liked by right if Only the party can unite. Peres has told his labor party troops to shut up he must be aware of the political adage attributed to Woodrow Wilson never murder a Man who is committing  he is being urged to declare the rotation Deal off and to Call elections using the liked s recent ruckus As proof that it cannot govern but that would reunite the opposition and revive charges that Peres is not a Man of his word. So the liked damaged in the Public s eyes by its rip roaring divisions is now trying to Patch itself together. The peace maker Between Shamir and Levy is will wonders never cease the newly mild mannered Sharon who apparently thinks that in a couple of years his strength will exceed that of his ally Levy. A Deal will have to be Cut before the convention resumes because More dior a Cliness would spell disaster. My guess is that Sharon will get Levy to shake hands with Shamir and agree to prop Shamir up As the head of the party thus getting the rotation promised by Peres. In return Shamir would share party authority and his half of the rotated govern ment with the Sharon Levy forces. It would no longer be necessary for Shamir As the new prime minister to declare him self a lame Duck because the show of strength at the convention by his opposition has already demonstrated that. If the temporary liked Patching up happens and if Peres keeps his word to step Down for Shamir the Battle in two years will be fir t Between Levy and Sha Ron for leadership of the right right then Between the Winner of that and Arens who will emerge As the Shamir successor of the Center right. In 1988, that new liked Leader will face Peres or Rabin. American lefties will Root for Peres Rig tics mainly for Arens How Ever if Sharon can make peace in his party his image May soften. All Clear now i wish some talmudic scholar would explain what s going on Here in the United states As vicious Blades go snicker snack on the right Wing of the re publican party. New York. Times news service Morne Fum with Reagan on a of of contras Issue any president has the political advantage in his ability to Frame issues for decision. A president As Artic ulate As Ronald Reagan and As determined As he is on the Issue of Nicaragua has an enormous momentum going for him. Those who oppose military Aid to the contras More Over tend to be put on the defensive by the Way the Issue is framed. The sandinista have been painted in progressively More Devilish terms leftists marxist Leninist communists stalinist. To oppose a War against them is to be weak soft on communism unpatriotic. But there is no reason in fact for any politician to be embarrassed or defensive about opposing Aid to the con tras. Opposition is in the centrist the moderate tradition of american politics supported by history and Tough realism. It is the president who is on the extreme Edge asking the country to follow him into fantasy into an adventure marked for disaster. Bruce Babbitt the governor of Arizona put the Reali ties plainly in a recent article in the new York times. He is a centrist Democrat from the Southwest a Man often described As a potential presidential candidate who would Appeal to conservatives. The contras Are not democrats Babbitt said either by conviction or by popular  they have never held an Inch of nicaraguan territory and they have no Chance of winning with any level of .  and the effect of their terrorist War is anti democratic they allow a repressive unpopular regime to wrap itself in the Flag and justify emergency measures " the entire Reagan policy stands on a premise that defies reason and experience. It is that the United states should use Force to overthrow unfriendly leftist govern ments in the Western hemisphere. The lessons of experience on that score Are so overpowering that it is hard to understand How conserva Tives of All people can ignore them. In Guatemala a Cia coup produced 30 years of right Wing military dictatorship and mass murder. The Bay of pigs solidified Fidel Castro s Rule in Cuba. Of course there was Grenada and there is rambo. From such has. President Reagan Woven his fantasy of military Victory in the swamps of Nicaragua. We Are going to win by giving $100 million to a gang that can t shoot straight an army dominated by Somo vistas and adventurers As Babbitt put it. Another centrist Democrat sen. John Glenn of Ohio also put the Issue in political context. In a letter to constituents recently he said he regretted having been de Tensive in opposing the Reagan policy in Nicaragua. He was sorry he had begun a speech by saying no one is More anti communist than i am  americans Glenn said should not feel they need to prove they love their country before they can criticize policies they think Are wrong. Americans should not feel who invited you that opposing a president in some Way casts doubt on their  the Public has not bought the Reagan arguments on Nicaragua As White House political aides them selves say. Americans know instinctively that $100 Mil lion in Aid is not going to turn the contras into win ners political or military. They worry that after Aid and now we Are told . Advisers will come a de Mand for . Forces. To the arguments of realism the administration re plies with the oldest of presidential stratagems. That is to say we have secret intelligence that would persuade you if Only you were allowed to see it. The claim that War is necessary in Nicaragua to save the other fragile democracies of the Region for exam ple is exploded by the attitude of those very democracies. They have called for an end to the Contra War for regional negotiation instead. They regard . Mili tary intervention As a far More serious destabilizing threat than the existence of a left Wing government in Nicaragua. To that the administration can say Only that latin leaders speak differently in  it gives a similarly feeble explanation of the frequently attested brutality of the contras. Reagan says he has intelligence showing that sandinista have dressed up As contras to carry out those rapes and murders. To resist arguments so feeble and so dangerous is not to be weak or soft. It is to understand that diplomacy negotiation and agreement with our friends Are More effective ways to democracy and stability in Central America than a . War in Nicaragua. The question now is whether members of the House and Senate will be Able to resist the strident language of Reagan and standup for the alternative of reason. C new York times news service rep Nihn the columns and Toons on this pager presen those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As government9 th6 s ars and stripes or the United "