January 13, 1999. Copyright, 1999, Graphis News. All rights 
reserved

War of Smears
By Margot Nesdale

LONDON, January 13, Graphic News: ISRAELI Prime Minister Binyamin 
Netanyahu is facing fierce and widespread opposition in the 
upcoming elections.
	Unlike the past, where the only players were Labour and the 
right-wing Likud, the battlefield has widened this time to 
include a new political centre. 
Despite the collapse of NetanyahuÕs fragile, right-wing 
coalition, the opinion polls still give him a good chance in the 
race in May.
The Prime MinisterÕs stiffest competition comes from Labour 
leader Ehud Barak, who has gained popularity since the fall of 
the last Labour government and is now neck-and-neck with the 
Prime Minister in the polls. 
The 56-year-old former chief of staff of the Israel Defence 
Forces enjoyed an outstanding military career, a huge drawcard 
given Israelis have historically embraced former military leaders 
as political heads.
However he has failed to impress as opposition leader and trailed 
Netanyahu in the polls throughout much of last year.
Barak astounded many of his countrymen  by saying on television 
that if he had been born a Palestinian he would have joined a 
Òterror organisation at some pointÓ.
His successor as army chief, Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, has broadened 
the race by setting up a new centrist party.
A political newcomer, the retired general is untainted by scandal 
or failed policies.  
While his opponents have ridiculed him as a man with good looks 
and no answers, he is the opponent most feared in both the 
government and Labour camps.
Lipkin-Shahak formed the party with Likud defector Dan Meridor, a 
moderate who has been unable to shake off his image as a ÒwimpÓ, 
generated by the Israeli press.
Meridor, aged 51, served briefly as Finance Minister under 
Netanyahu, but ill-feeling has grown between the two over the 
past two years, with the Prime Minister recently referring to his 
policies as Òflaccid and limpÓ.
Most election analysts expect Meridor will abandon his own quest 
for the leadership and sign on as Lipkin-ShahakÕs right hand man.
Both men were protŽgŽs of slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Another contender is Benny Begin, a hardliner who served under 
Netanyahu as Science Minister and is the son of the late prime 
minister Menachem Begin.
Begin jr, 55, rejected the Oslo peace accords, quit the cabinet 
over the Hebron peace deal and left the Likud bloc over the Wye 
agreements.
His extremely right-wing political views are unpopular with the 
majority of Israelis, who favour the peace process.
Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon has hinted he might abandon 
Netanyahu, presumably if he starts to look doomed.
However Sharon has strongly denied rumours that he is rallying 
support from Likud members to form a new party in a bid to enable 
the right-wingers to win the elections.
The coalition government collapsed after the U.S-brokered 
land-for-security deal with the Palestinians last October. 
Hardliners deserted Netanyahu, saying he had betrayed them by 
giving up West Bank land they viewed as essential to IsraelÕs 
security and the biblical birthright of the Jews.
Netanyahu has since suspended the handover of more West Bank land 
to the Palestinians, alleging that President Yasser Arafat had 
violated the agreement.
The fall of the government and the decision by its Parliament to 
hold early elections have broad implications for peace with the 
Palestinians and for regional stability.
The government, ruled by the Likud and an alliance of 
ultra-nationalist and religious fundamentalist parties, is 
committed to maintaining control over most of the occupied Arab 
territory in the West Bank and to establishing new Jewish 
settlements there.
If they are replaced by a more moderate coalition of centrists 
and liberal groups and a peace-oriented prime minister, this 
could revive the peace process and even open the way to talks 
between Israel and Syria.
/ENDS.

Sources: Reuters, Time magazine, Newsweek