Likud Aims Low in Campaign Attacks on Rabin : Israel: Many think the personal broadsides say more about Prime Minister Shamir’s election difficulties than they do about his opponent.

For campaign kitsch of the low-blow kind, these could go down in Israeli history: plastic drinking cups inscribed with the assertion that “Israel needs a clear-headed prime minister” signed by a bogus “Committee Against Alcoholism,” an allusion to alleged heavy drinking by Yitzhak Rabin, the Labor Party candidate for the post.

Or how about a dial-a-message tape recording that recounts Rabin’s attack of nerves as military chief of staff on the eve of the 1967 Middle East War--to the tune of the theme song from the movie “Rocky”?

Both are from the election campaign arsenal of incumbent Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and his Likud Party for use against Rabin. It is not yet clear how the public will respond to such tactics, but there is general agreement that the personal broadsides say more about Shamir’s campaign difficulties than about his opponent.

“There is no doubt that Shamir is in trouble,” a senior government official said. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t see such tactics with still a month to go.”

The Shamir campaign has not yet decided whether to use the cups, the official said, but the telephone recording is already in place.

A month before election day, June 23, polls show Rabin and Labor ahead, although given the history of slipshod surveying here, signs from the rightist Likud camp itself are regarded as more significant. These include lackluster stump performances by parliamentary candidates; whispers of a move to get Shamir to step down before the election and to replace him with a new face, and internal analyses predicting that Likud can do no better than aspire to a junior role in a Labor-led coalition government.

A Rabin government is expected to try to accelerate progress in Middle East peace talks and restore warm relations with Washington. Rabin has vowed to curtail construction of settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a program that has been the centerpiece of Shamir’s reign and a constant irritant to the United States.

Liberals in Labor and further left, starved for victory, now think they can smell it. Their favorite expression is a wistful “if only the elections were held tomorrow.”

That’s because a month can be a long time in Israeli politics: Labor has led in surveys in previous campaigns, only to watch the advantage evaporate in the days before the vote. Since 1977, when the Likud era of dominance began, left-right voting patterns have shifted little, with most elections ending in a kind of tie.

Rabin’s lead appears to stem from dissatisfaction with the economy--the country is in a recession--and the displeasure of new Russian immigrants with their reception in Israel, where they face cramped housing and underemployment.

Without legs to stand on regarding the economy, Shamir and Likud have decided to focus on Rabin’s character to overcome what they call the “personality cult” his party has built up around him.

At the Likud campaign kickoff earlier this month, delegates screamed “Drunk!” each time Rabin’s name was mentioned. Recently, Likud turned its attention to Rabin’s record in the 1967 war.

On the telephone tape, with the “Rocky” music in the background, a narrator recites an account of Rabin’s exhaustion three weeks before the war broke out.

Rabin, on the advice of some of his advisers, decided to respond to the attacks. He called the drinking charges “just plain nonsense.”

In an interview published Friday, he gave a detailed account of his actions in the days leading up to the outbreak of the war.

The Six-Day War, fought in June, 1967, was a smashing victory for Israel. But the prelude to the war, Rabin made clear in the interview, was a time of deep uncertainty. “I reached a situation of fragility,” he told the Hadashot newspaper. “I didn’t sleep almost nine consecutive days. I didn’t eat anything, and I smoked a lot. I was in a very difficult mental state.

“I blamed myself for being responsible for Israel standing on the eve of war in the worst strategic situation it could be in.”

Rabin recounted a visit with David Ben-Gurion, the country’s first prime minister, who expressed anger that Rabin had called up the reserves, provoking Egypt.

“From there, I went home with a heavy feeling in my heart,” Rabin said, characterizing his condition as one of “deep emotional distress.”

Rabin’s wife, Leah, insisted that he stay home for a day under medical treatment, the event on which Likud is basing its charge that he suffered a nervous breakdown. That evening, Rabin said, the doctor gave him an injection to help him sleep.

Beyond making the allegations, Likud sends its own provocateurs to Rabin rallies, where they blow whistles to drown him out. Fistfights have broken out, prompting the country’s chief rabbis to appeal for a peaceful campaign.

There are risks for Likud in its strategy, observers say. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the war, which made Rabin, who recovered to lead the effort, a hero. “Likud is playing around with a country’s myth. It’s like attacking George Washington,” said Dore Gold, an adviser to Israel’s delegation to the peace talks.

“In any case,” added a senior government official and Likud sympathizer, “it’s kind of early to bring out such heavy weaponry. If this gambit fails, what does Likud have left?”

Moreover, analysts say, the usual black-and-white landscape, in which Likud campaigns normally thrive, is missing. The contest is no longer between proponents and opponents of peace talks, because peace talks are already under way. In the past, Shamir has run on the notion that Labor, under hapless campaigner Shimon Peres, was ready to engage in talks with the Palestine Liberation Organization. These days, it is Shamir’s representatives who are talking with PLO surrogates.

Likud was accustomed to pointing at Peres and his party as soft on security and on the Palestinians. It is more difficult to characterize Rabin, a former chief of staff and author of the big-stick policy toward Palestinian rebels, as a bleeding heart.