Furious Sharon ordered off air

Ariel Sharon, who started as an odds-on favourite to win Israel's January 28 general election, was fighting yesterday for his political life.

But his counter-attack, in a televised press conference, may have added to his woes as it ended with him being pulled off the air by a judge.

Polls published yesterday showed that a torrent of sleaze allegations has eroded support for his right-wing Likud by 25 per cent since the campaign began a month ago.

The focus of suspicion is no longer just the ruling party, with its questionable ways of selecting parliamentary candidates. It is Sharon and his two wheeler-dealer sons, Omri and Gilad.

In an address that was as much a campaign speech as an exercise in self-vindication, the 74-year-old Prime Minister hit back indignantly at Labour leader Amram Mitzna and his own media tormentors.

But he was cut off mid-flow as the head of the election commission ordered Israeli television and radio stations to take him off the air.

"We are sorry to announce we have to stop broadcasting the speech immediately according to an order by the election commission chairman, Judge Mishael Heshin, as the Prime Minister's comments amount to campaigning for the election," Army Radio said.

In the month before polling day, broadcast propaganda is restricted to campaign commercials.

A survey in the liberal daily Ha'aretz yesterday gave Likud 27 seats in the 120-member Knesset, four down in a week. In early December the party looked like winning 40.

"This is no longer a fall," Sima Kadmon, a political analyst, wrote in the mass-circulation Yediot Aharonot. "Not even a crash. This is absolute loss of faith in the man and in the party."

Sharon lashed out at centre-left Labour and its supporters, charging that for political motives they had spread vicious gossip about him, his family and his party. "I have nothing to hide," he said. "I will continue to behave as I have until today."

Labour parliamentarian Haim Ramon said Sharon's speech was "a disgraceful appearance by a petty politician who, instead of telling the public the truth about himself, is busy spreading lies about someone who wants to lead the nation into a new era".

Sharon lashed into Mitzna, the dovish mayor of Haifa, for his more conciliatory stance toward the Palestinians that the Prime Minister said would endanger Israel's security.

Sharon, at times pounding the lectern, said there was no proof of bribery in the Likud funding case and that one of his adult sons had documents to prove that.

The scandal focuses on funding irregularities in Sharon's 1999 Likud election campaign and includes accusations of wrongdoing over a US$1.5 million ($2.8 million) loan from South African businessman Cyril Kern. Israeli law bans political funding from abroad.

The money, according to the reports, was put up as collateral for a loan used to cover the return of illegal campaign funds, which Sharon had told police he paid back by taking out a mortgage on his ranch.

Kern said Sharon was an old friend and that he lent the money to Sharon's children. The loan had been repaid with interest.

In a further blow to the Israeli right, the Supreme Court yesterday overturned a ban on two prominent Arab candidates for Parliament, a move which could bring more Arab voters who normally identify with leftists to the ballot box.

A narrow majority could lead Sharon to seek a broader coalition including centrist and left-wing partners likely to push for a softer line towards the Palestinians.

- INDEPENDENT, REUTERS

Herald feature: The Middle East