Israeli Race Ending, Too Close to Call
Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir worked the phones Monday while his rival Yitzhak Rabin crisscrossed Israel in a helicopter in a last grab for votes in an election that final polls showed was too close to call.
Rabin, 70, head of the opposition Labor Party, whirled from town to town to woo as many as possible of the 20% of Israelis who say they do not know which way to vote today.
Shamir, 76, spent the day in his office encouraging activists of his ruling Likud Party by telephone.
The campaign, which never reached the fever pitch of previous elections, fizzled out by evening. The biggest excitement was a riot by Israelis in southern Beersheba who feared they would not be able to register to vote in time. Army Radio said police used force to suppress hundreds of rioters who spat at, cursed and hit police and Interior Ministry office guards.
Soldiers in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon voted Monday, allowing extra time to collect ballots from remote polling stations. The Jewish state will prevent the 1.7 million Palestinians of the occupied lands from entering Israel on Election Day.
Opinion polls Monday confirmed the trend of the last two weeks--Likud and its religious party allies narrowing Labor’s lead. But the mood among Labor members, out of government for most of the past 15 years, remained buoyant.
Labor surged ahead in the polls after Rabin seized the party leadership from four-time election loser Shimon Peres in February.
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