Remark Stings Netanyahu

An ethnic slur aimed at Benjamin Netanyahu's supporters electrified the prime minister's sluggish campaign Monday and was expected to help him close in on his challenger.

In a weekend rally for moderate opposition leader Ehud Barak, actress Tiki Dayan dismissed Netanyahu's constituents many of them Sephardic Jews of Middle Eastern descent as "riffraff."

Barak, who was at the rally, distanced himself from her remarks Monday, and Dayan apologized. But Netanyahu quickly turned the slur into his main campaign issue.

Netanyahu told supporters at a rally Sunday night that, "I'm proud riffraff" and a campaign ad by his Likud Party said, "Barak clapped, laughed and didn't say anything."

"They (Labor leaders) understand, of course, that this is going to hurt them because it reveals that they all think this way," Netanyahu said on Israel army radio.

Also Monday, Netanyahu decided to make an unscheduled campaign stop in south Tel Aviv's poor Hatikva neighborhood, traditionally a stronghold of Sephardic resentment against what is perceived as Israel's elite of European-born Jews and Barak's Labor Party.

Newspaper commentators said Dayan's remarks ignited an otherwise sluggish campaign and they speculated that it could hurt Barak, who is leading Netanyahu in the polls.

The incident underscored Israel's ethnic divisions that some say are being exacerbated by politicians ahead of the May 17 vote. Barak accused Netanyahu of "dividing the people" by turning Dayan's remark into a campaign issue.

Netanyahu narrowly won the 1996 election by putting together a coalition of what he said were Israel's outsiders Sephardic Jews, ultra-Orthodox Jews and Russian immigrants. He portrayed himself as the underdog who would seize power from Israel's elites.

In the 1999 campaign, he has tried to revive that coalition, but has run into some trouble.

Barak has made inroads among Sephardic Jews and disappointed Likud supporters. There is also growing acrimony between two former Netanyahu allies, the Russian immigrants' party, Israel B'Aliya, and the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party.

The "riffraff" slur was compared to a 1981 incident in which entertainer Dudu Topaz, speaking at a Labor campaign rally, used a derogatory remark to describe the supporters of Likud's Prime Minister, Menachem Begin. Begin, who portrayed himself as the champion of the underdog, made good use of the remark and was re-elected.

In an attempt to jump start his campaign, Netanyahu for the first time used footage of 1996 terror attacks by Islamic militants in his television commercials Sunday night.

Netanyahu has tried to make personal safety a core issue of his campaign and has claimed credit for the decrease in terror attacks by Palestinian militants since he took office.

Written by Karin Laub