TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/062590/0625009.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 1.6 KB | 42 lines

                                                                                WORLD, Page 28

The Man Who Can't Say Yes



    Why did Yitzhak Shamir appoint David Levy as Israel's
Foreign Minister? Because Levy can't say yes to Secretary of
State James Baker's peace plan -- he does not speak English.
That gag is a sample of many Israelis' reaction to Levy. His
fastidious appearance and emotional style of speaking have
spawned so many jokes that at least one collection has been
published. "One of his problems is that people don't take him
seriously," says former Cabinet Secretary Aryeh Naor.

    From now on, they had better. Levy, 52, an immigrant from
Morocco and former construction worker who has never earned a
college degree, has become the strongest leader of Israel's
increasingly numerous and powerful Sephardic (Oriental) Jews.
Many Israelis, in fact, suggest that the derision he has
encountered reflects resentment of the Sephardim by
long-dominant Ashkenazi Jews. He has proved a shrewd infighter
in domestic posts, and though he is the first Israeli Foreign
Minister who is unable to speak English, he is fluent in Arabic
and French.

    A onetime Likud moderate who criticized the 1982 invasion
of Lebanon, Levy switched to a hard line when Shamir proposed
a peace plan last year, and as Housing Minister he secretly
subsidized the Jewish settlement in the Christian quarter of
Jerusalem's Old City last April. Levy has never hidden his
desire to become Prime Minister, though polls rank him near the
bottom of lists of leading candidates. His new job could change
that perception -- or cement it.