wo days before Israel began its
"Grapes of Wrath" bombing cam-
paign in Lebanon, Prime Min-
ister Shimon Peres cancelled a
planned visit to Kiryat Shemon-
ah. Residents were burning tires
in the street. Protesters carried
posters that read, "Peres is a cow-
ard," and "Government of traitors."
The only cabinet member who dared
come to Kiryat Shemonah that day was
Moshe Shahal, the minister of domestic
security. He was forced to get back into
his car and speed out of town when angry
demonstrators surrounded him, some
threatening his life.
At that time, when Israel was staying
its hand against Hezbollah's Katyushas,
the right-wing opposition teed off on Mr.
Peres and the government. Binyamin Ne-
tanyahu, cheered heartily on his visit to
Kiryat Shemonah, said, "This is a coura-
geous people, a strong people — stronger
than its government."
In those last days before "Grapes of
Wrath," the enemy was hurting Israelis,
forcing them to hide in underground bomb
shelters, and Mr. Peres looked like a
leader who could not defend his people.
On Aptil 11 the Israel Air Force went
to work in Lebanon. On April 12 Mr. Peres
came to Kiryat Shmonah. Residents sur-
rounded him again, but this time many
were cheering. Accompanied by Mayor
Prosper Azran — a Likud member who
With "Operation Grapes
of Wrath," Shimon Peres
takes the election
campaign over the
border into Lebanon.
LARRY DERFNER ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT
AP/YARON KAMI NSKY
The Politics
01 War
earlier had been blasting Mr. Peres for
weakness — the prime minister told res-
idents in the shelters, "You are the sol-
diers on the front." Suddenly he was
among friends.
There is a war going on now in
Lebanon, and in six weeks there will be
an election in Israel. Whether Mr. Peres
is thinking about the election while fight-
ing the war can only be guessed at, but it
seems clear enough that the war is boost-
ing his election prospects.
"There's no question about it," said
Hanan Kristal, political commentator for
Voice of Israel radio. 'Whenever there is
a military action, the government gains
popularity."
Public opinion pollster Hanoch Smith's
last survey, taken on the eve of Passover,
showed Mr. Peres leading Mr. Netanyahu,
50-44 percent. He began conducting a new
survey a few days after "Grapes Of Wrath"
got underway, and said, "I suspect a slight
further increase in Peres's lead."
"When we're taking a beating, it hurts
whoever is heading the government.
When we're dishing it out, it helps him,"
said Mr. Smith. The pollster noted that
the suffering of people in the north would
work against Mr. Peres, but that the
prime minister's militancy in Lebanon
would at least equalize that factor. "He
can only go up," Mr. Smith said.
Mr. Netanyahu promised that if the
government fought Hizbullah agressive-
ly, the opposition would support it whole-
heartedly. Mr. Peres is now fighting the
war the Likud demanded, and Mr. Ne-
tanyahu has kept his promise. "There is
no [government] coalition and no oppo-
sition in Israel with regard to what is tak-
ing place in the north, and all of us stand
together against a common enemy," he
told CNN.
The Likud's new star, Yitzhak
Mordechai, a retired Army general who
previously had command over the north-
ern front, at first dismissed "Grapes of
Wrath" as "too little, too late." That was
the first and last high-profile criticism of
the war effort uttered by the Likud.
Formally, the election campaign is on
a very low flame. Likud advertisements
Shimon Peres talks to reporters during a visit to Kiryat Shemona.
attack Mr. Peres over the Oslo Accord,
noting that the Palestinian Authority re-
cently released Hamas and Islamic Jihad
activists. But all eyes are on Lebanon and
Israel's northern border now, and the
Shimon Peres is now
fighting the war his Likud
opponents demanded.
Likud is constrained from criticizing Peres
on that front.
Mr. Peres and Labor are not saying
anything of a political nature. They don't
need to — "Israel is strong with Peres"
is the prime minister's campaign slogan,
and he is backing it up with action. In ef-
fect, the war in Lebanon is his campaign
now.
However, Hizbullah leader Hassan
Nasrallah has promised to hit back at Is-
rael in a way that will "astonish Shimon
Peres." He has made it clear that Hizbul-
lah will not limit itself to Katyushas on
the north, but will target the heartland of
the country. Israeli intelligence officials
say the organization may strike at Israeli
institutions abroad.
If such a terrorist attack occurs, Mr.
Peres's campaign lead could dwindle, just
as it did during the spate of bus bombings
in the last week of February and first
week of March. On the other hand, if U.S.
pressure and Lebanese suffering leads to
a cease-fire that quiets Hezbollah, Mr.
Peres's fortunes should rise higher.
From the outset, Israel's election cam-
paign has been completely at the mercy
of violent eruptions — first the Rabin as-
sassination, then the Hamas bus bomb-
ings, now "Grapes of Wrath." If the war
in Lebanon turns out to be the last act of
bloodshed to shake up the Israeli body
politic between now and election day, it
will be an upset.