Israel's 'Only Clean Party'.(Tommy Lapid, Shinui Party)

Only a month ago, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his right-wing Likud Party looked invincible. Now, corruption allegations have sent the Israeli leader's re-election campaign into a tailspin. And the main beneficiary does not appear to be Labor Party leader Amram Mitzna, Sharon's main rival, but Tommy Lapid, who heads a party that is virtually unknown outside Israel.

Lapid, 73, a former TV commentator and leader of the centrist Shinui Party, has attracted Likud defectors in droves with his campaign against the ultra-Orthodox, who are exempt from Army service and live mostly on government support. Lapid wants to cobble together the first all-secular coalition in Israel's history, and he may soon be in a position to make that happen. Polls taken last week, after a leaked police report suggested Sharon and his family might have lied about a $1.5 million loan, showed Shinui jumping from six to a projected 17 seats in Parliament--possibly enough to make Lapid the kingmaker of Israeli politics. He sat down for an interview recently in his Tel Aviv office with news-week's Dan Ephron. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: Your party appears to have benefited most so far from the corruption scandals swirling around Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Why is that?

LAPID: Because large parties here are tainted with this kind of thing and the only clean party in our politics is Shinui.

But your rising numbers also have to do with luck.

I cannot deny that the timing is serving us well. Good timing is essential in politics. The political tradition in Israel is [normally] that centrist parties start strong but fade by Election Day.

How concerned are you?