Benjamin Netanyahu
Loses Popularity
The national camp sees a few defections, and a
weakening in the public's eye.
LARRY REIMER ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT
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"
2
el Aviv — Since the Rabin
assassination, the right-
wing opposition has been
almost helpless. About a
month after the murder, Dr.
Mina Tsemach, Israel's foremost
public opinion pollster, found that
Likud leader Bibi Netanyahu
was trailing Prime Minister Shi-
mon Peres in popularity, 46 per-
cent to 28 percent.
"Bibi is caught in such a diffi-
cult situation — the peace
process with the PLO is moving
forward, facts are being created
on the ground, terror has all but
stopped, and now Rabin has been
assassinated," said one Likud
source. "I don't know if any oth-
er leader could handle it any bet-
ter."
Mr. Netanyahu and his sup-
porters have been spending much
of their energy trying to prevent
Mr. Peres from co-opting a cou-
ple of the smaller right-wing and
Orthodox parties into the gov-
ernment, and thus isolating the
Likud with no allies but those on
the far right.
So far Mr. Netanyahu has suc-
ceeded. But the opposition re-
mains deeply wounded. It has
offered the electorate no viable
path to peace. It has been stained
by the violent, malicious demon-
I11
U)
strations that led up to Mr. Ra-
0
m
bin's
murder. The
z
near-unanimous view is that Mr.
7>
Netanyahu and the Likud must
•
move closer to the center, but
0
0
they have been so relentless in
their opposition to the peace
m
process that such a move would
C)
hardly seem convincing to the
voters.
•
The opposition is wedded to a
C
politics with a discredited imme-
0
diath past and little discernable
C)
future. By contrast, the govern-
C
ment's peace process is sailing
- 7 4
ahead, accompanied by the
revered legacy of a prime minis-
r —
ter slain by a right-wing radical.
X/
In such a state of affairs, it's no
•
surprise that what's known as
the National Camp has appeared
confused, not knowing which way
0
to turn, and doubtful of its lead-
13
co
ers.
•
Recently a new bumper stick-
0
er was printed up — not by any
m
3
means in great numbers, but its
U,
•
mere appearance signalled a
m
challenge to Mr. Netanyahu. It
reads: "We're going with Dan
m
Meridor."
—4
C
Mr. Meridor is the star of the
"moderate" Likud camp. The
m
C -Kr.ass0...m. arr b pr.9.,-_, d fomrmar ;1_1 a
-
tice minister stayed away from
the wild anti-government demon-
strations, and is seen as an in-
telligent, soft-spoken,
conservative realist - - the kind
who could attract voters from the
vast center.
Mr. Meridor had nothing to do
with the bumper sticker, said a
source close to him. And Mr.
Meridor has repeatedly said he
will not challenge Mr. Ne-
tanyahu, the elected leader of the
Likud. But, the source added,
"There are voices saying the
Likud would be better off if Meri-
dor was running the party. Clear-
ly he is more alive to the pace of
events than Netanyahu, and
more flexible in his ability to ad-
just to them."
Shai Bazak, Mr. Netanyahu's
spokesman, said such voices "are
so marginal that they shouldn't
be taken seriously." The criti-
cisms against Mr. Netanyahu,
Mr. Bazak contended, were "in-
ventions of the media."
But the defection of Knesset
Member David Magen from the
Likud was no media invention.
The former economics minister
declared he was leay.'ng the par-
ty and would run on Likud rene-
gade David Levy's upcoming
Knesset list. The Likud, under
Mr. Netanyahu's leadership, had
become too extreme and had
abandoned its commitment to so-
cial justice, Mr. Magen said. He
promised many party members
would follow him to Mr. Levy's
camp.
For now, Mr. Netanyahu's sup-
porters can no longer say Mr.
Levy was an isolated malcontent
in the party.
Strengthening that moderate
view is the Third Way. Made up
mainly of "Labor hawks" dissat-
isfied with the peace process, it
began life as a centrist move-
ment. But when it came out
against the Oslo II Accord, it ef-
fectively joined the right-wing op-
position. The movement, which
plans to run as a party in the next
election, just suffered a major de-
fection. Its number two man, for-
mer Army Chief of Staff Dan
Shomron, packed hi: bags after
the Third Way's leader, maver-
ick Labor MK Avigdor Kahalani,
won their power struggle. "The
Third Way has turned into Ka-
halani's one-man show," grum-
bled Mr. Shomron, who is now
flirting with David Levy's par-
ty.