ISRAELIS UNNERVED AS VOTE NEARS ON NATION'S FUTURE.

Byline: John Donnelly Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

When Israelis go to the polls Wednesday, they will choose between two starkly different visions - Shimon Peres' for accelerating the Middle East peace process and Benjamin Netanyahu's for slowing the process to a crawl.

The vote, coming at the halftime of peace-making, looms as nothing less than a referendum on the country's future, which will help shape the near-term destiny of the Middle East, as well.

It would seem an easy choice. But it's not.

For many Israelis, the decision is agonizing. Even party loyalists say they will cast ballots along party lines with deep ambivalence.

This is an election many wish would go away, one of choices uncertain and worse: Over and over, voters remark there is no way of knowing whether either of the visions will bring real peace, security and acceptance from the Arab world.

On top of that, the campaign feels like a burden. The usual exuberance is missing. The threat of a Muslim terrorist attack in the final days of the campaign has everyone on edge, forcing Shin Bet security agents to make the race one of physical separation between candidate and voter. Prime Minister Peres, especially, has been kept far from crowds.

And some say the ghost of Yitzhak Rabin, assassinated by a right-wing religious Jew last November, hovers over the campaign - putting a damper on the usually heated give-and-take for fear that words will lead to something much darker.

In short, it has been a campaign of fear.

If Peres wins, there are fears of more bus bombings, a peace deal with the Palestinians that would split Jerusalem into Israeli and Palestinian capitals, and the rise of anger among the militant Jewish right furthering intra-societal strife.

If Netanyahu wins, the fears zero in on a possible freeze of the peace process; a setback in relations throughout the Arab world; and the use of Israeli soldiers in Palestinian-ruled areas to crack down on terror - missions that could spark a repeat of the intifada, the Palestinian uprising against Israel.

Some analysts say such gloomy scenarios are exaggerated. There are strong, if minority, streams of thought - among Jews and Muslims, Israelis and Palestinians - that the actual differences between Netanyahu and Peres will not be great.

Several Palestinians close to Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat, in fact, privately say they would prefer Netanyahu if only because they know what they would be getting. Peres, they say, has proven a peace partner who has brought precious few fruits.

All this leads to confusion - and a very high number of undecided voters. Turnout is expected to mirror past recent elections, nearing 80 percent, and the latest polls, released three days ago, gave Peres leads of between four and seven points.

But Labor Party's own polls have shown the volatility of the electorate: About 12 percent remained undecided.

``Who wins the center of the field is going to win the election,'' said Nissim Zvili, Labor Party's general secretary. ``They are trying to push us to the right; we are trying to push them to the left. At the end of the process, the security issue will be the main issue.''

Peres has long been viewed as a wily politician. Longtime arch-rival Rabin once called him an ``indefatigable schemer.''

Yet, Rabin and Peres came to terms with each other through the process of peace. In the last minutes before an assassin gunned down Rabin with two bullets, Rabin put his arm around Peres at a Tel Aviv peace rally - once an unthinkable show of affection between the two.

Peres, of course, hopes his association with Rabin bolsters him in the vote, but in many ways he is the anti-Rabin: reluctant to speak from his heart; never using dismissive army slang; his shoes always polished; his manner more befitting a diplomat than a general.

Netanyahu, for his part, can be even smoother than Peres - at least before TV cameras. He has brought an American-style campaign to Israel. He even hired an American consultant, Arthur Finkelstein, who has delivered a simple, negative campaign slogan over and over in television ads: Peres will divide Jerusalem.

But the Americanized candidate, speaking accentless English, wearing well-tailored suits, has had trouble shaking a huge negative: his inexperience. People aren't sure how he would react under pressure.

And they aren't sure how he'll deliver on his promises. For instance, Netanyahu has said that he will work toward a peace deal with Syria but will never give up the Golan Heights. He has promised to increase Israeli army presence and conduct army raids to fight terror in the West Bank but also continue the peace process with Palestinians. How he would pull off either, he doesn't say.

For such promises, commentator Doron Rosenblum in the newspaper HaAretz compared Netanyahu to the ubiquitous rogue character in old Western movies ``who stood up in the center of town and proposed a miracle potion for all the world's ills.''

What do voters make of all this?

They use one word again and again: balagan, a mess.

``I don't think I'm the only one confused. The whole nation is confused,'' said Hanania Cohen, 34, a mechanic in Beit Shemesh, a traditionally right-wing city 16 miles southwest of Jerusalem. ``No matter who you vote for, there will be problems.''

In talks with dozens of Israelis from this town to northern Galilee villages to the suburbs of Tel Aviv, scores echoed Cohen's sentiments. Many professed not knowing how they would vote.

``I'm not sure I can trust either of them,'' said Sigalit Elankri, 26, serving a glass of fresh-squeezed lemonade at her family's outdoor cafe in Beit Shemesh. ``My family is split half and half. We talk about it and there's a big fight. So we try not to say much.''

Elankri, who lives in Miami Beach but has been visiting her family for the last two months, said that talking about the election ``is not like other topics where after you talk about them for a while, you feel better. With the elections, you really think about it, and it gets really frightening.''

Netanyahu will win lots of votes in Beit Shemesh - his Likud Party historically has carried the town - but many of his supporters wanted to move more quickly than he in peace talks with the Palestinians.

``I see a Palestinian state coming. We can't get away from that anymore,'' said Amnon Shuan, 33, who owns a shoe shop. ``Everyone, though, wants fences'' between Israel and a new Palestine.

Peres will fare much better in cities such as Rishon Etzion, which means ``First to Zion.'' (The city, a Tel Aviv suburb, was founded nearly a century ago by some of the first Zionists in Palestine.)

For many in this city, a vote for Peres is a better bet for peace.

``I don't believe the Likud when it says it is for the Oslo agreement,'' said Ruth Shrestha, 45, a nurse. ``My son is going into the army in two years. And I am afraid there will be more Lebanons. I don't want him in a war.''

But even here, there are many people who say they won't decide how to vote until Wednesday.

``I have to think about a few things,'' said Esther Cohen, who sat on a flower planter in the middle of a pedestrian mall. ``I've changed direction about 10 times.''

ELECTION AT A GLANCE

Key facts for Israel's general election Wednesday:

Eligible Voters: 3,933,250 (3,391,652 Jews, 541,598 Arabs)

Polling stations: 6,713

Candidates for Prime Minister: Shimon Peres, Benjamin Netanyahu

Parties running lists for Knesset: 20

Average voter turnout in past: 78 percent

Threshold needed to win a seat: 1.5 percent of the total vote, or probably about 45,000 votes.

Absentee Voters: 105,000, or about 3 percent, including soldiers, merchant seamen, diplomats, prisoners and hospital patients. Overseas votes were cast May 16 and soldiers vote Tuesday.

Source: Associated Press 

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Box: ELECTION AT A GLANCE (see text)