Perhaps it really is hunting season, as Sharon described what he thinks is being done to him, but now is also the season of inflamed passions and dizziness over the innumerable spins, over the revival of old stories and over the fantastic inflation of new stories. But the steam rising from this cauldron in which politicians, media advisers, lawyers, State Attorney’s Office officials, police and press are stirring, heats our head and clouds our view. This great drama, of which one of its highlights was last night on television (until it was interrupted) might be dwarfed in another two-three months and we will be astonished at ourselves that we became caught up in this excitement, but what can we do, it’s the season.

Why dwarfed? Because judging by all signs, this story of the loan, the lien, the South African connection, the farm, the banks and Sharon’s sons, does not really show signs of criminal acts, but more of clumsy handling, insensitivity to details and to Ariel Sharon’s and his sons’ obligation to report.

It is unpleasant and improper, but that’s no reason to fall from power. Only in two cases could the affair have criminal significance: if the money that Cyril Kern loaned could constitute bribery, and considering his long friendship with the Sharon family and his detachment from all business in Israel, this does not appear likely, or if Cyril Kern himself is the anonymous donor from Annex, which would make all the convoluted details of this deal into a criminal and wrong move, and there are no signs of this either.

On the other hand, while we said that the Sharon family’s handling of this affair was clumsy, this is too fine a word for their handling of the media. Particularly yesterday. It’s hard to know if Sharon’s gamble to talk flagrant election PR when he began to speak was deliberate, in order to be interrupted before getting to the stage of tough questions on live television, or if he thought he could get away with this, taking a chance that he was breaking the election law. It is unpleasant when the prime minister crudely tramples the law in front of all the people of Israel, and this no doubt made its impression. It was also very unpleasant to see Ariel Sharon trying to persuade the public that his sons received a loan for an enormous sum from one of his best friends without his knowing about it. Such things don’t happen. Not really. And the main thing: he refused to detail for the public where he suddenly received the large amount of money that supposedly got him out of all his money troubles.

In such cases, the prime minister must come forth and give the public, if he wants to restore his credibility, a full x-ray of the money chain. Sharon, twice in one week, presented partial information, and this gave a clear impression that he has something to hide.

And again, on the other hand, Sharon’s great anger, who feel that plots and conspiracies are being woven against him, is understandable. He can, and rightly so, ask why the documents in the affair of the Greek island, which incriminate his son Gilad and which have been sitting for two years in the police offices without Gilad being questioned about them, are suddenly being pulled out. He can ask why the letter of request to South Africa was sent a short time before the elections and how it found its way to the press, replete with outspoken allegations, an even shorter time before. His subjective sense is that a combined effort of his political rivals, of the police, of the State Attorney’s Office and media officials is being made. To the press’ credit, we can say that it usually runs after stories because journalists like good stories and don’t bother to stop and reflect about the interests of the persons leaking them. Justifiably. That is not their job. But the public can reflect on this and guess, without too much difficulty, who the leakers are, who is fanning the flames into hysteria and what their motives are.

Arik Sharon came to his abbreviated press conference yesterday concerned about his fall in the polls, but somewhat cheered by a poll conducted by the Geocartography Institute that came out yesterday showing the a large majority of the public does not believe that there is suspicion of criminal activity in this affair. The public feels uncomfortable but still does not believe, in the main, that the prime minister is a crook.

The problem is that at the rate that affairs are coming up, who knows what else the public will see in the time left before elections and how much time there will be to seriously examine these revelations and the possibility must taken into account that with so many affairs around, people will be convinced that something really is going on and change their mind on election day. These revelations may be genuine and harsh. On the other hand, they may be empty revelations that are inflated and embellished. If that happens, it would be terrible: an unfounded campaign of lies would change the government. This already happened once, sort of: in the 1992 elections, the slogan “corrupt officials, we’re sick of you” was coined, based mainly on the charges against Sharon’s close friend Uri Shani. The Likud was brought down partly because of this slogan. Five years later, the affair ended with a conviction for very minor offenses. This is not only unfair. This is dangerous for democracy. The fury of voters whose party is deposed because of tricks of this sort is liable to be poison to majority rule. It’s best to beware.

This news analysis ran on January 10, 2002 in Maariv

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