Blessings and Rumors Do Brisk Trade As Israeli Campaign Ends on Low Notes

With the campaign entering its last crucial lap before Tuesday’s elections, Labor remained ahead of Likud in the polls by 5 to 8 Knesset seats–depending on which poll one read.

But as most Israelis know, the relative strength of the two major parties in Parliament will not decide which heads the next government. The determinant will be the size of the rival blocs of left and right, which throw their support to one or the other.

According to the latest polls, they were in a dead heat over the weekend.

Nevertheless, both Labor and Likud launched their final, do-or-die efforts to sway the voters before all campaigning ends officially at 7 p.m. local time Monday.

For Labor Party leader Yitzhak Rabin, the final spurt was by air. Using a chartered plane, he began to crisscross the country on Saturday night, to finish up Monday evening.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir remained earthbound. His closing pitch was made after the weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday to friendly crowds in south Tel Aviv, a traditional Likud stronghold.

All parties were screening their final television appeals Sunday night. Likud is calling on waverers to “return home” to close the gap the polls have been showing for the past few weeks.

Labor wants to keep that gap as wide as possible. It may have been helped by a poll published Sunday of Israel Defense Force reserve officers of senior rank.

By a margin of 70 percent, the IDF generals favor generous territorial concessions for peace.

The poll, commissioned by the Council for Peace and Security, was conducted by a leading polling organization. In addition to the IDF, the respondents included former senior officials of the Mossad, Israel’s external intelligence agency, and the Shin Bet, its internal security service.

Meanwhile, accusations flew thick and fast between rival parties, who lodged complaints and counter-complaints with the chairman of the Central Elections Committee, Judge Avraham Halima, and with the police.

The leftist Meretz accused the strictly Orthodox parties of “importing” hundreds of identity cards belonging to Israeli citizens living abroad, with the intention of using them to vote Tuesday.

Israel does not have an absentee ballot and its expatriates must come home if they want to vote.

Meretz also accused the Orthodox Shas and the National Religious Party as well as Likud and Yitzhak Moda’i’s New Liberals of bribing Arab voters with cash handouts and promises of benefits in return for their votes.

In the ultra-Orthodox camp, the United Torah Front is casually circumventing the law that forbids trading blessings for votes.

Instead, it is offering “prayers of the tzaddikim,” (sages) which the pious consider one and the same. The Torah Front reported a brisk “trade” in signed commitments.

Rabbis of the strictly Orthodox Sephardic Shas party are reportedly granting “absolution” to entice the faithful who have pledged their support to the rival Ashkenazic Orthodox list.