Israel: The Final Lap

Polls show Peres leading

Never was the contrast in the styles of the two men so apparent. Animated, aggressive, sarcastic, Shimon Peres assailed his opponent, all the while calling him "Mr. Shamir" instead of by his official title of Prime Minister. "You have learned to make mistakes," Peres summed up. "We have learned from your mistakes." Yitzhak Shamir did his best to ignore the barbs. Serious, diffident, somewhat plodding, he pledged to tackle the nation's woes more aggressively. Said he: "Elections come and go, but the country stands forever... We must fortify it."

That half-hour televised debate last week marked the first and probably last time the two candidates will meet before next Monday's parliamentary elections. With questions supplied in advance, the encounter mirrored the sluggish campaign. Opinion also seems becalmed: according to polls published in the Jerusalem Post last week, Peres and his Labor party still enjoy a cozy lead over Shamir's Likud bloc, 39.5% to 29.5%. If that gap holds, Labor could win 47 of the Knesset's 120 seats, vs. 35 for Likud.

To improve his chances, Shamir has cast about for a headline-grabbing diplomatic strike. At one point his aides whispered about a summit meeting with Morocco's King Hassan II or a get-together with Ronald Reagan, but Shamir did not pursue either one. The Prime Minister is still pushing to swap 120 Palestinian guerrillas for three Israeli soldiers held by a wing of the Palestine Liberation Organization. What he would most welcome is a last-minute campaign appearance by his predecessor, Menachem Begin, who remains a virtual recluse in his Jerusalem apartment. Likud officials estimate that a TV or radio address by Begin would be worth between two and five extra seats.

Shamir repeated his pledge to invite Labor to join a national unity government if he is elected, but Peres quickly turned aside the offer as an "election ploy." Nonetheless, the winner almost certainly will need the support of several small parties to build a coalition. Shamir could glean bright news from polls that show Tehiya, an ultra-right-wing Likud partner with three Knesset members, picking up six or seven seats. If the election is taper thin, that could be enough to tip the balance in Shamir's favor.

Both parties continued to rely on TV commercials to win voters' hearts, though neither candidate was featured prominently. Instead, Likud and Labor hired well-known comics to carry the message.

In one skit, Labor chastised Likud for seeming to claim that nothing had been accomplished in Israel before Begin came to power in 1977. "Did you hear, the Likud built Masada?" a comedian asked in a reference to the fabled mountain fortress at which Jewish warriors held off the Romans in the 1st century A.D. The Likud gave as good as it got by poking fun at Peres' ambiguous views. Imitating the Labor leader's voice, the jester answered one question, "Yes. No. Yes. No..."