Party Jitters

Both the
Likud and Shas
parties are
tightening
internal solidarity
in the face of
mounting
corruption
allegations.

118

ERIC SILVER

ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT

ike all street fighters, Prime
Minister Binyamin Ne-
tanyahu is convinced that
attack is the best form of de-
fense. Recently, with challenges
from the left and the right, he
went over to the offensive.
From the left (and even from
the right), there was the continu-
ing police investigation into the
abortive appointment of the Likud
loyalist and under-qualified Roni
Bar-On as attorney general. By
week's end, it had become clear
that there was fire as well as
smoke behind the Israel Televi-
sion report of skullduggery.
From the right, ex-Minister
Benny Begin, toting his father's
"Eretz Yisrael" banner, was dis-
mayed by the Hebron redeploy-
ment and by the government's
commitment to hand further
slabs of West Bank to the hated
Yassir Arafat.

Li

So Mr. Netanyahu went to pat on the shoulder and which
to shake by the hand.
populist. First, he played
The recent convention of
the Jerusalem card, en-
Yosef the Likud's 2,500-member
dorsing plans to build
ma be
thousands of homes for quests y oned. central committee was tai-
lor-made for his purpose.
Jews (and some Arabs) in
The agenda, timed to the
the disputed capital on
land conquered from Jordan in minute, was drafted by Ne-
the 1967 war, regardless of the tanyahu's machine. The prime
consequences for the peace minister rose to speak just as the
two main local television stations
process.
And then he rallied his troops: were beginning their evening
the Likud branch officers, most- news bulletins. Burly male cheer-
ly blue-collar, mostly Sephardi, leaders orchestrated the slogans
who joined the party to put the and the applause.
Without mentioning the Bar-
"elitist" Labor establishment in
its place. They like a fight, but On affair, Netanyahu went out
of his way to reaffirm his soli-
love winning.
Bibi Netanyahu is their man. darity with Justice Minis -ter Tza-
When he was tested in the polls hi Hanegbi and Prime Minister's
last May, he delivered. For all his Office Director General Avigdor
American airs and education, his Lieberman, the two Likud men
sabres Hebrew strikes a chord. He in the investigators' gun sights.
He condemned the "hostile"
knows exactly which activists to
embrace with both arms, which press and froze out the Greater

Israel traditionalists. The crowd
got the message, booing Finance
Minister Dan Meridor, chanting
"Begin is a traitor" and "death"
to the media in general and Ay-
ala Hasson, the Channel One re-
porter who broke the Bar-On
story, in particular.
"Likud rallies around PM," the
Jerusalem Post trumpeted across
five columns the next morning.
But on the Jerusalem building
front, he cannot be sure that Mr.
Arafat will not inspire a bloody
reaction once the bulldozers roll.
He is also taking a chance that
the United States, the Euro-
peans, the Egyptians and Jorda-
nians will buy the consolation
prize of 3,015 new homes for
Arabs alongside the 6,500 for
Jews (though even Israeli com-
mentators doubt whether the
Arab construction will ever hap-
pen).