RESEMBLING NETANYAHU; FORMER PRIME MINISTER BECAME A LIGHTNING ROD FOR MANY ILLS.

Byline: Avi Davis

THE crash and burn of Benjamin Netanyahu's prime ministerial career ranks as one of the most startling examples of self-destruction in political history.

Not only has the Netanyahu campaign for re-election resulted in a collapse of his own leadership, but the Likud party, which has largely dominated Israeli politics for most of the past 22 years, has suffered a reversal as crushing and humiliating as any in its history.

All of this is so surprising because on paper Netanyahu and the Likud had much going for them. Having inherited a country that had suffered a horrific incidence of terrorism in the early months of 1996, Netanyahu's government hastened a crackdown that resulted in only minimal civilian losses over the following 36 months. The peace process, which many in Israel had seen as going too far, too fast, was substantially slowed down and the concept of reciprocity (famously encapsulated in the phrase ``if they give, they will get'') enshrined as policy. If nothing else, his earlier election slogan of peace with security was convincingly vindicated by facts on the ground and became the sin qua non by which all future negotiations would be conducted.

But Netanyahu failed to learn the most grueling lesson of any politician in Israel - you must pay your dues. His accelerated rise through the Likud ranks, built on his undeniable media finesse and television skills, had, to many in his own party, more to do with telegenic appeal than substance. His failure to build a power base within his own party with those who supported his policies and shared his ideology was to have telling consequences. The Likud elite, represented by such leaders as Roni Milo and Dan Meridor, who had apprenticed under Likud's founder Menachem Begin, reground their resentment of Netanyahu's media competence and his arriviste style into fuel for an opposing party.

Yitzhak Mordechai, Israel's popular former chief of staff, a symbol of both security and moderation, was largely ignored. His disaffection with Netanyahu's style eventually drove him from the party. Other defections included Moshe Arens, Netanyahu's mentor for most of his career who challenged him for leadership of the party in January, and Benny Begin, son of the former prime minister and regarded as the leader of Israel's far right, whose opposition to the Wye River Accords was the ultimate catalyst for Likud's collapse.

The list unrolls for such length with such ferocity that Netanyahu's demise begins to resemble the fate of Shakespeare's Macbeth with whom, besides a murderous disposition, he shares much in common.

But all this does not give the whole story. The Israeli left, led by secularist academics, human rights activists and most importantly, almost the entire media, could never forgive Netanyahu or the right for the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and for the explosion of their hopes for peace following his death. For those on the left, Netanyahu's ascendancy was an insult to Rabin's memory and an atavistic retreat into tribalism. Beginning with Rabin's family, a worldwide, vituperative and wholly irresponsible campaign was conducted to discredit Netanyahu, clothing him in such satanic garb that by comparison Yasser Arafat began to look like a fitting candidate for prime minister.

Almost alone, Netanyahu became a lightning rod for all that the secular left felt was wrong with their society. Even when Netanyahu finally moved, much to his own political peril, toward the center with the signing of the Wye River Accords, the hunt rushed on, unabated. The media whirlwind, harnessed so effectively by his enemies, engulfed him and turned his failed policies into a damning indictment of the man himself.

As the long election campaign finally wound to a close, few citizens or commentators could articulate the essential differences in policy between Barak and Netanyahu. The only issue of substance to emerge after all the blather and sloganeering died away, was one of character.

Now only as Ehud Barak assumes the mantle of government will his character be tested by the very same indices as his predecessor. No one yet seems prepared to recognize that this stubborn, uncompromising and arrogant former general actually resembles Netanyahu more than he, or even his supporters, would care to admit.

With that fitting irony, historians may well look back on the 1999 election campaign as a sordid tale, full of sound and fury, but ultimately - signifying nothing.

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PHOTO Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the opening of the math and physics olympics during the closing days of the campaign.

Associated Press