"Others have to defend them and others have to work for them, and have to be grateful to them for praying" for Israelis, he said. "My support is partly a revolt of the secular, liberal-minded modern Israeli against this type of ghettoization."

Israeli Gadfly Hopes to Separate Religion and State
Tommy Lapid, bare-knuckled commentator and crusader against state-subsidized Judaism, has emerged, grinning, as the biggest surprise of this most surprising campaign season — the man who would be kingmaker in Israel.

Opinion polls consistently indicate that Mr. Lapid's minor party, dedicated to cutting the government benefits of religious Jews, is poised to become the third-largest faction in the next Parliament, which could make his a pivotal voice in determining the next governing coalition.

From right, left and center, other Israeli politicians are suddenly gunning for Mr. Lapid in hopes of drawing his party's new support away. It is hard to have a conversation with Labor Party politicians without hearing Mr. Lapid compared to Archie Bunker, their calculated shorthand for an armchair reactionary.

Mr. Lapid, a 71-year-old Holocaust survivor, is enjoying that very much.

"I take it as a compliment," he said today of the comparison to the most famous, if fictional, product of Queens. "I do look like him, and I am — how do you say it — pugnacious."

The new support for Mr. Lapid's Shinui Party arises partly from voters' impatience with the major parties over the stalemate with the Palestinians, the dismal economy, scandal and a clinging malaise. But it also demonstrates that Israel's longstanding contest between secular and religious Jews is intensifying as the debate sharpens over what it means to live in a democratic state that is Jewish.

"You're looking at the rabbi?" Mr. Lapid said, noticing that a visitor's eyes had strayed to the gray-bearded, black-robed puppet on his desk in his bustling headquarters here. He scooped up the puppet, which wore boxing gloves, and, manipulating it, threw a couple of combinations.

"This rabbi — if you don't agree with him, he punches you in the nose," Mr. Lapid explained. He called the religious "a minority that has privileges and no responsibilities," citing exemptions from army service and tax breaks.

"Others have to defend them and others have to work for them, and have to be grateful to them for praying" for Israelis, he said. "My support is partly a revolt of the secular, liberal-minded modern Israeli against this type of ghettoization."
The surge behind Mr. Lapid is not just a reflection of antireligious sentiment. In a political system divided along ethnic as well as religious lines, his party appears to be drawing from Israel's elite of Ashkenazim, with roots in Eastern and Central Europe. Further, his party's name, Shinui, or Change, incorporates an inchoate revolt against the status quo.

"Against this mood, a party like that, a person who is a TV product who seems to know what he is saying, appeals to the nonpolitical white-collar professionals," said Itzhak Galnoor, a Hebrew University political scientist. He called Shinui a "destabilizing force," saying it was taking votes from the major parties and scrambling Israel's coalition politics.

Relishing that role, Mr. Lapid leaned back in a swivel chair as he ranged forcefully in an hourlong conversation from Israel's role as a haven for Jews, to what he regards as the political awakening of Israel's bourgeoisie, to his rich career as a writer of successful guides to Europe, a playwright, a radio and television commentator and a newspaper editorialist.

Opinion polls consistently suggest that in elections to be held on Jan. 28, Shinui could more than double — almost triple, some analysts have predicted — its present six seats in Parliament. This campaign has already produced its share of reversals, but at the moment Shinui looks likely to displace a religious party, Shas, as the third-biggest faction.

It may prove difficult to fit this secularizing party into a governing coalition. In Israel such coalitions traditionally have a religious component, and Mr. Lapid says his party would not join a coalition with religious conservatives.

That helps explain why Labor announced on Tuesday that it would not join a coalition led by Ariel Sharon, the current prime minister and leader of Likud. Labor wants to quash any hope of such a secular coalition, to win back defectors by making a vote for Shinui look like a vote for Mr. Sharon and presenting itself as the only true opposition voice.

This strategy does not appear to be working, for now. Few Israelis appear to take seriously Labor's pledge not to join a unity government.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/17/international/middleeast/17ISRA.html?pagewanted=all&position=top