By HERB KEINON

'What is the difference between a Jew and a non-Jew?' asks Tel Aviv-based political consultant Roni Rimon, momentarily sounding like a Borscht Belt comic as he explains the differences between Ehud Barak and Binyamin Netanyahu's campaign strategies.

'A non-Jew goes to a new town, asks people what is missing, and sets up the kind of business they don't already have. A Jew goes into a new town, asks what types of businesses are succeeding, and opens what is already working.'

So far in the campaign, Rimon argues, Barak has taken the first of the two tacks. He is looking at the votes missing from Labor, and has set out to attract them.

He is doing this by creating One Israel, an attempt to add 'marquee names' to his list and attract voters from sectors - particularly the edot hamizrah (Jews of North African and Asian origin) - who are generally allergic to Labor. He is doing this by making social-economic issues the cornerstone of his campaign.

Netanyahu, on the other hand, is looking at who voted for him last time, and is concentrating his efforts on just keeping them in the corral. He is doing this by appealing to their emotions, by casting Barak and Labor as 'leftists,' by stressing foreign policy and diplomatic issues.

'The main difference in the campaign up until now is that Barak is trying to convince Likud voters to cross lines,' Rimon said. 'Netanyahu is not trying to convince Labor voters, he is just trying to convince the Right to stay with him.'

By stressing the economic and social issues, by bringing up time and time again the elderly woman without a hospital bed, or the son whose father is unemployed, Barak is - in the words of Bar-Ilan University professor Sam Lehman-Wilzig - 'punching at Bibi's weak point.'

According to Lehman-Wilzig, coordinator of the Comm- unications Program at Bar-Ilan's Department of Political Science, if Barak is able to garner 10 to 20 percent more voters than Shimon Peres received in 1996 in development towns and deprived neighborhoods in the large cities, he will win the election. 'In these areas,' Lehman-Wilzig says, 'economics is Netanyahu's Achilles' heel.'

Since that's the case, it makes perfect sense to harp on the economy - something Barak is doing with repetitive passion.

Netanyahu, on the other hand, wants to stay away from economics and social issues, for the simple reason that the economy is in trouble and there are a lot of people out there in dire financial straits.

Netanyahu emphasizes foreign policy because he can't point to tangible achievements in other spheres, Lehman- Wilzig says.

'A pure economist could say that there are [negative] things the government has been able to avoid,' Lehman- Wilzig maintains.

'There are countries stronger and larger than us that collapsed economically, and although we are in a recession, there has not been a run on the shekel and there is no tumult in financial markets. This is because of the government's strict monetary and fiscal policies.'

The problem for Netanyahu, Lehman-Wilzig continues, 'is that it is hard to go to the people with a campaign of 'see what I avoided.'

'People want to see what you did, especially when there is high unemployment and many are suffering. If people vote on economic issues, it is on microeconomics, not macroeconomics. This government has done well on the macro scale, but is weak on the micro-economic issues, which is why Bibi doesn't mention the economy.'

But foreign policy and security issues, hanging tough against the world, is something Netanyahu does mention continuously, and it is pleasant to the ears of his constituents on the Right.

Netanyahu, according to Wilzig-Lehman, can say, 'I have held strong and fast. I've looked after Israel's interests, not kowtowed even to the US. There is a strong sense in part of the society that we don't want to be pushed around, that we are not anyone's sucker.' It is to Netanyahu's benefit that this sentiment is strongest among the groups of voters in the development towns and underprivileged neighborhood that Barak is trying to attract.

'Likud voters vote more on emotions,' says Rimon, 'otherwise you can't explain why someone who lost his place of employment, and whose economic situation is bad, still shouts 'Bibi, Bibi,' and is not willing to hear anything else. His strategy is to appeal to their emotions.'

That Netanyahu, unlike Barak, is not trying to attract voters from the other camp explains why he has chosen as his slogan 'Netanyahu - A Strong Leader for a Strong Nation.' Those who may feel the slogan has 'fascist' overtones are not going to vote for him anyway. But it plays well among Netanyahu's natural constituency.

'The Likud campaign so far has been emotional, and Labor's has been rational,' says Rimon. 'When Barak speaks he uses a lot of figures, says there are this and that many unemployed. When he says that he wants money to go to education, not for settlements, that is a rational argument, not an emotional one. He is saying there is only so much money in the national coffers, and it has to be divided differently.'

These arguments appeal to the head, and are meant to appeal to the head of former Netanyahu supporters just barely scraping by.

Netanyahu, on the other hand, goes for his people's guts. 'When you say a strong leader for a strong nation, that plays on people's egos. Those who vote for Likud... don't want a weak guy, they want someone who stands his own ground.'

From Day One of the campaign, says Rimon, this has been Netanyahu's message, and it is a message unlikely to vary much over the next three months.

Links in this section:
More than a token victory?
The power game
Neighborhood watch
'I don't pay attention to polls'
Population shifts