Carville's office in the firm of Stanley Greenberg and James Carville was burglarized of records ­ supposedly pertaining to polls done in Israel for Carville and Clinton's client, ex­Gen. Ehud Barak of the Labor Party. What's that smell? Could it be that the burglary was a put­up job so, as in the past, Labor could scream that the opposition was terrible, horrible, untrustworthy, evil, Nazis, storm troopers ­ much, much more.

Why would a burglar steal polling data when most of it changes by the hour in Israel? How did the burglar know which filing cabinet to break open? Barak has already said that strategy is planned in his office so the great Carville thoughts were not stolen. But, consider the benefit and an opportunity to jump on the shouting platform, saying, "We have been injured!" If that was the intention, to blame Netanyahu and Likud for stealing those precious files ­ it worked. NPR, National Public Radio has already gleefully proclaimed there is speculation that Netanyahu and Likud did a Watergate­style burglary. Netanyahu through his spokesman, David Bar Ilan already had to deny that Netanyahu and Likud had burgled Carville's office. Having to deny is as good as proof for the media and the gullible public.

Well, in Washington the art of the Dirty Political Tricks was sharpened to an ugly razor's edge. I would not be surprised if many of those in Washington, so desperate for a Labor win, thought that a little burglary would be just the right touch. The fact is that Netanyahu has been conducting almost weekly polls and knows by the minute where he stands relative to the competition. He, least of all, needed what Carville had accumulated.

I smell a Dirty Political Trick and it's time to ask Labor, Barak and Carville if they have any ideas who would want files of little news except to be spun by the spin doctors in the bowels of the Oval Office, the State Department, Industrial Arabists and all those who are desperate for a Labor government return to power. They have reason to worry, given the fact that Ehud Barak is not showing any leads in anyone's polls. A little 'explosion' on the political scene would certainly help Labor's cause.

Come to think of it, Yitzhak Rabin was in a similar losing position in the polls when he was shot. The perpetrators of that affair are still being investigated. Strange isn't it, that all these things happen before elections, when one side is down in his polls.

So, what's the next likely move?

First, the NEW YORK TIMES, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, LA TIMES, CNN, NPR are likely to run this 'great' event as a lead story, following the Clinton trial. CNN will, of course, show footage of the building and, with some luck, the vent on the roof where the penetration was made. All of this will percolate down through other newspapers and TV anchor news. This kicks off the whisper­whisper campaign that Carville's polling notes were a "Key to the Election" of his client, General Barak and the Likud did it.

This thing is so amateurishly transparent that the event didn't deserve a two­ inch column on page 52 of a 51 page newspaper. But, folks...watch the PR buildup in the US which will be funneled into Israel where the four leftist newspapers will jump on the story and spin, spin, spin.

So, c'mon, you can do better than this pathetic attempt at what appears to be nothing more than a cheap Political Dirty Trick. In any case, this appears to be merely a warm­up for coming political Dirty Tricks, courtesy of the Labor party, Carville and Arabist propagandists who desperately want Labor to fulfill their fondest dreams. Add to that "Campaign Contributions" in different forms with most brown bagging it from Mr. Clinton's White House.

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Emanuel A. Winston is a Middle East analyst & commentator and a research associate of the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies.