Lights Go Out on Israeli Debaters : Politics: Power outage during Rabin-Shamir exchange adds spark to a lackluster election campaign.

Let it be noted that the art of media spin reached full flower in Israel during this otherwise unremarkable election campaign and that on Tuesday, the spin-masters for the leading candidates dealt with the surprise question of “Who turned out the lights on Yitzhak Rabin?”

Rabin, the challenger from the center-left Labor Party, engaged Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, leading the rightist Likud Party, in a televised question-and-answer session advertised somewhat misleadingly as a debate. It was the only face-to-face meeting scheduled between the two before next Tuesday’s election, and with Rabin leading the polls, Likud supporters were hoping for a dramatic showing by Shamir.

They didn’t get it, despite efforts by Shamir’s backers to put his performance in the best possible light for a gathering of reporters. Shamir, although relaxed, never strayed beyond standard responses to the moderator’s questions.

Rabin, appearing stiffer, put on a display of verbal macho that, in the words of one Shamir staffer, “out-Likuded Likud.”

Rabin was just finishing his closing remarks, slamming his fist on a studio desk to emphasize his rejection of statehood for Palestinians, when the lights blew.

Was it the rare June rainstorm outside? A faulty fuse?

Shamir had already had his turn, but Labor spokesman Chaim Ramon claimed that Likud tried to seize the opportunity to obtain another chance for its candidate to make another closing statement. Likud’s Ronni Milo countered that Labor had begged to get the whole debate restarted because its man had done so badly.

Finally, both sides agreed to leave things just where they were--in the dark.

“We were so happy with what happened here that we said OK, we’ll take three seconds less,” said Labor’s secretary general, Micha Harish.

Countered Herzl Makov, an aide of Shamir’s: “The prime minister spoke more to the issues, answered questions and didn’t deal in election slogans.”

During the half-hour session, both Rabin and Shamir offered well-known positions on the issues facing Israel.

Rabin pledged to speed up peace talks toward giving Palestinians self-rule but suggested that peace with Syria, Israel’s most powerful Arab adversary, will take longer. He argued that relations with the United States need mending and accused Shamir of losing an “historic opportunity” to properly absorb a wave of Russian immigrants by squandering money on settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“I am for starting to open new possibilities,” Rabin concluded while promising to curtail the settlement program.

Shamir insisted that relations with the United States are not in crisis and defended the settlement program, which the Bush Administration opposes, by asserting that the disputed West Bank and Gaza Strip are part of Israel.

He predicted that Washington would eventually grant Israel guarantees for $10 billion in loans in order to create jobs for new immigrants. In any event, he would not give in to American pressure to freeze settlements, even if it meant losing the assistance.

“This should never happen because if this way becomes acceptable, we will lose our independence. It is forbidden to do this,” he said.

The three-month Israeli campaign is limping to a close with commentators complaining that both main candidates have missed a chance to deal seriously with details of important issues.

“From the day the election campaign began, the ‘war’ has focused on secondary matters, gimmicks and tricks,” intoned the liberal newspaper Haaretz. “As a result, voters have become apathetic and bored.”

Indeed, the main excitement of the past week involved remarks by a leading rabbi and spiritual leader of a religious party that Israelis of North African and Near Eastern descent were not yet ready for positions of power. The comments provoked an uproar among the Oriental Jews and may benefit a rival religious party.

With that risk in mind, the rabbi’s supporters put their own spin on his words. The rabbi only meant that a particular Oriental Jewish leader, not the whole population, was unfit. The rabbi, not to be upstaged, then put on his own reverse spin, asserting that no one was authorized to speak for him. The matter is still hanging.

Otherwise, the race has focused on the minute questions of who will have the advantage in building a coalition after next Tuesday. Likud, if it loses, hopes to keep Labor from taking a big plurality of seats in Parliament. That way, Likud will be able to force Rabin into a unity government in which Likud would play a prominent role.

Labor, on the other hand, is looking for a big enough margin either to form a coalition with leftist groups or, if it must rule jointly with Likud, to put the rightist party in a clearly junior role.

During the debate, neither Shamir nor Rabin would detail their post-election plans. Both complained that a unity government is largely unworkable, but neither ruled it out. The past two elections have ended with Likud and Labor joining in an uneasy partnership.