Israel Power to the Fringe

By JON D. HULL JERUSALEM

Inside a crowded courtroom in Jerusalem, a rapt audience sat hushed as the nation's highest judges wrestled with an explosive question: Is Rabbi Meir Kahane simply too fanatical to run in Israel's Nov. 1 election? Outside, dozens of the American-born rabbi's supporters bellowed their own verdict, waving banners emblazoned with Kahane's provocative trademark, a clenched fist. Starry-eyed disciples strained to touch the man who vows to expel every last Arab from both Israel and the occupied territories. Exclaimed one young follower: "Next month we shall decide once and for all how to deal with the Arabs."

Kahane personifies the most zealous strand in Israeli politics. This week the high court will decide whether his ultra-extremist Kach Party can be banned from the ballot under a controversial new law that excludes parties deemed racist or antidemocratic. But in a campaign marked by mounting anger and violence, more and more voters are deciding that the proliferating splinter parties on both the extreme right and left offer something irresistible: a clear-cut, dramatic solution to the eleven-month-old Palestinian uprising.

The fringe appeal is hardly surprising. Israel's so-called government of national unity is widely ridiculed as a mismatch that has locked Israel into a debilitating status quo. Both Labor's Shimon Peres and Likud's Yitzhak Shamir have defined the election in terms of peace and the Palestinians, but neither candidate offers any plausible solutions. Says Abed Darawshe, who defected from Labor to protest the government's handling of the uprising: "The intifadeh ((uprising)) has divided Israel more than ever. The two big parties simply have not convinced the public that they have the answer."

If Kahane is allowed to run, public opinion polls suggest he could win as many as three seats in the 120-member Knesset. Voters disillusioned by the two major parties also have 25 other alternatives, ranging from Communists to colonists. Some want to annex the West Bank; others propose an independent Palestinian state. The leader of a religious party called SHAS promises God's blessing in return for a vote, while another candidate is a former convict jailed for tossing a hand grenade into the Knesset in 1957 and wounding David Ben-Gurion. The Yemenites' Union and the Politeness Party reflect rather specialized interests.

Israel's increasingly alienated Arabs could net at least 14 seats in parliament if they unified their vote. So far, no one party has been able to capitalize. Many of the 320,000 Arab voters have traditionally chosen Labor, but this year some are looking farther left. Their defection could have a boomerang effect, swelling Likud's plurality at the expense of Labor. Three other leftist parties could account for as many as eight seats in the Knesset. Darawshe's new Arab Democratic Party, which calls for direct negotiations with the P.L.O., could pick up another. But he represents the only Arab party that Labor might stomach in a coalition.

Only about half of the fringe parties are likely to enter the Knesset, but their presence in the campaign forces Likud to veer farther right and Labor farther left. And any party that wins just 1% of the vote -- a mere 17,000 ballots -- is guaranteed a seat. Since neither Labor nor Likud has ever won more than 56 seats in the parliament, the splinter groups wield enormous power when it comes time to form a government.

This year both Labor and Likud hope to stitch together a majority without each other. Likud's most obvious partner is Tehiya, an extremist party that says what Prime Minister Shamir may only think. It now holds four seats and may win as many as seven. "We want annexation," declares Yuval Ne'eman, party leader and director of the Israeli Space Agency. At a minimum, Tehiya would insist that Shamir launch a new wave of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and promise in writing never to approach a negotiating table with a land deed in his back pocket.

The Citizens' Rights Movement is the left's answer to Tehiya, proposing direct talks with the P.L.O. and an end to the military occupation. It now holds five seats and may win up to eight. Party leader Shulamit Aloni, a former Labor member, has already informed Peres that she will join a Labor government if he adopts a more aggressive peace platform, perhaps to the point of agreeing to negotiate with a reformed P.L.O.

Israel is paying a steep price for its peculiar form of democracy. Extremism is on the rise, and the public remains far too divided to deliver a mandate. The farthest-out factions that win a handful of crucial votes may determine the next Prime Minister.

With reporting by Robert Slater/Jerusalem