Vitriol flies in Israeli election

"MAYBE YOU'D like to put me in a concentration camp?" asked Yusef Lapid, irascible leader of a small party seeking to roll back the influence of ultra-orthodox Jews on Israeli life, during a television debate in the run-up to the election.

Since Mr Lapid is known to be a survivor of just such a camp he may have expected Eli Suissa, the ultra-orthodox Interior Minister and his opponent in the debate, to deny that he had any such plans. If so, he underestimated the rising level of verbal violence in this election campaign.

"You've already been in a concentration camp and you didn't learn your lesson," shot back Mr Suissa, unimpressed by Mr Lapid's status as a Holocaust survivor.

At times the hatred expressed between Israel's different religious and ethnic communities is almost visceral. An advertisement for Mr Lapid's recently founded party, Shinui, says ultra-orthodox wheeler-dealers have opened "the door to Khomeinism". An ultra-orthodox counter- attack accuses Mr Lapid of using the methods of the Nazis.

The super-heated rhetoric expresses real animosity between secular and religious, Moroccan and Russian Jews. Mr Lapid's party, considered maverick anti-clericals at the beginning of the campaign, is now expected to win four seats in the Knesset.

Daniel Ben Simon, an Israeli commentator, says: "You can't understand present-day Israeli politics without getting into the ethnic ghettos." Relations between Israel and the Palestinians is no longer the priority for Israeli voters.

Most Israeli intellectuals and writers have no doubt about who is responsible for the growth in the insult level: Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister. "He is such a liar that sometimes you can't even be sure that what he tells you is a lie," says one former government official. Under the headline "A Prince of Darkness and Hate" Yoel Marcus, a commentator in the daily Haaretz, said: "With lies, intrigues and hatred he [Mr Netanyahu] is endangering Israel's welfare and future."

Not everything can be put down to Mr Netanyahu. The Russian immigrants compete directly with the Moroccan Jews for jobs and political power. Secular anger at the influence of the ultra-orthodox has been growing for years. Ethnic and religious tensions combine. Last week Mr Suissa said the Russians wanted to take over his department, because they feared he would "close the stores that sell pork and shut the churches that have sprung up among the new immigrants".

Ever since he was elected Prime Minister three years ago, Mr Netanyahu has shown himself ready to exploit these divisions. He famously whispered to an ageing but powerful rabbi that his opponents "don't remember what it is to be Jewish". Insults such as that are not forgotten.

But the rivalries Mr Netanyahu once exploited may bring him down. The Russian and Sephardi parties are at each other's throats. The coalition with which he won the last election is falling apart. His best chance of winning on 17 May was a renewed confrontation with the Palestinians over the future of Orient House, their East Jerusalem headquarters. This issue was defused yesterday when the Israeli High Court ordered the government not to close Orient House until at least 18 May. Ir Shalem, an Israeli peace group, had asked the court to stop the closure on the basis that Mr Netanyahu had acted to win the election.

The government is demanding that Faisal Husseini, the Palestinian leader in Orient House, accept Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem and end his political activity. However, the Palestinians want East Jerusalem as their capital and the status of the city is to be discussed under the Oslo accords.

Israeli security sources and Palestinians predict violence if the police storm Orient House. Foreign diplomats suspect that was exactly what Mr Netanyahu had in mind. In a mild exchange of insults with Avigdor Kahalani, the Public Security Minister, who tried to broker a compromise, Mr Netanyahu accused him of being a cowardly rabbit. Mr Kahalani replied that all the Prime Minister wanted was TV pictures of Israeli police entering the building.