A Family Affair

Israelis gathered around their televisions Thursday night to hear Ariel Sharon refute allegations of a scandal. The furor surrounds a $1.5 million loan from a foreign supporter that has sent his re-election campaign into a spin. As part of a convoluted series of financial maneuvers, Sharon's sons used the money to pay off illegal campaign contributions from a previous electoral run that regulators told Sharon to return. On TV, Sharon said the loan had been repaid, and that he hadn't closely followed how his sons had tried to clean up the campaign-funding mess. But he didn't stop there. As Sharon railed against what he called a media conspiracy to unseat him, Judge Mishael Cheshin, who oversees election broadcasting laws, decided Sharon had strayed into political mudslinging, which is banned from TV for 60 days before elections. Cheshin ordered the broadcast stopped. Even after the plug was pulled, Sharon continued to bellow at journalists in the press conference. "Did you go crazy?" he yelled, twice.

It's Sharon who's being driven crazy by the Likud's slipping numbers. The attorney general says his investigation won't be completed before the Jan. 28 election, but it's only the latest of several corruption allegations against the Likud. Back in early December, Likud was expected to take 41 of the 120 Knesset seats. Then investigators alleged that the Likud's slate of candidates had been selected amid rampant vote buying at its Central Committee. Top party officials admitted they were embarrassed that a 27-year-old waitress, whose father has alleged underworld connections, secured a relatively high spot on the candidate list.

Sharon tried to stem the tide by firing a deputy minister who refused to talk when police questioned her about the vote buying. But the stories about his sons have pushed the Likud down to only 28 seats. And it could get worse. "Right now there's a lot of smoke and a little bit of fire," says Ron Dermer, a political consultant. "But it's having a big impact."

Likud insiders believe Sharon might be forced to sacrifice his son Omri, who's running for the Knesset. But the Likud's corruption could be tough on Sharon even after the election. Labor opponent Amram Mitzna will be pressured to join a coalition with Sharon by party bigwigs eager for patronage. If Sharon is badly tarnished, Mitzna will be able to say no and the Likud will have to form a government with ultra-hawkish nationalist and religious parties. That's a recipe for an even more fragile coalition than the one whose collapse prompted these early elections in the first place.