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The World

Shaking
The Wimp Image

AVI MACHLIS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Jerusalem

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1/1

1999

30 Detroit Jewish News

Interior designers always welcome!

or Dan Meridor, the biggest
challenge facing him as he
runs for prime minister may
be a television puppet.
A veteran politician and Likud mem-
ber, the soft-spoken Meridor last week
announced he is forming his own cen-
trist party to run against Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu in the upcoming
elections. At least half a dozen major
candidates are expected to get into the
fray that was triggered by the Knesset's
rejection of Netayahu's last-minute bid
to keep the controversial Wye River
peace agreement at least nominally on
track.
Although Meridor is well-educated
/
L
and highly respected across the political
spectrum, he will have to convince
Israelis that he can lead.
This is where the televised puppet
show comes in.
"Hartzufim," a weekly satire in which
puppets play politicians, depicts Meridor
as the ultimate wimp, incapable of
standing up for himself or making deci-
sions.
--\
True or not, the image has been hard
for him to shake off
"He is more resolute and made of
harder stuff than was presented on the
show," says Gideon Samet, a columnist
for the Israeli daily Ha'aretz and a friend
of Meridor's.
"Dan Meridor is honest, intelligent
and personable, with deep roots in the c_/\
Israeli political system," says Samet. "My
problem with him is that his record has
shown so far that he is far more right of
center than he would like the public to
believe."
Shayke Ben-Porat, a veteran journal-
ist and author of a recent book, Talks
With Dan Meridor, disagrees. He says
Meridor has moderated his previous
LY
political stance and accepted the Oslo
peace process.
Ben-Porat also says Meridor's puppet
likeness is not completely mistaken. He
does have some difficulty making deci-
sions, but that is because he is very intel-
ligent and always tries to understand the
other side of an argument," Ben-Porat
says.
Meridor, 51, was born into a family
steeped in Likud ideology His father,
Eliyahu, was an activist and Knesset
member from the Herut Party, Likud's
precursor.
A graduate of Hebrew University's
Law School whose wife, Leora, is one of
WIMP IMAGE on page 32