OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, December 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Officers of the Israeli national police fraud division arrested two key members of the Likud Central Committee late Monday, December 16, for attempted bribery in connection with the scandal-shadowed Likud primaries, in which the committee ranked the party's candidates for January 28 general elections.

Details of the suspicions against the two were initially sketchy, but the Likud has been rocked by a spate of accusations that candidates for the Knesset list offered bribes to members of the party's central committee in return for their votes in the primary election, the Israeli Ha’aretz newspaper reported Tuesday, December 17.

The two suspects were the first to be arrested in connection with the widening investigation.

In many cases, fewer than 10 votes could decide whether a candidate had a realistic chance of taking a Knesset seat following the elections, in which polls show the Likud could win as many as 41 seats.

Senior Likud officials, seeking to head off possible electoral damage from charges of widespread corruption, have praised efforts to probe the instances of bribery, which include reports that central committee local bosses, acting as "vote contractors" offered to "deliver" votes for as much as $1,000 each.

In a parallel investigation, Israeli Army Radio reported Tuesday that leader of the Ben-Gurion University students association Gila Gamliel - ranked number 11 on the Likud list for January 28 elections - blackmailed and bribed a fellow student leader to help her prevent her from losing her position.

"There is a suspicion that in the past, Gila Gamliel kept herself from losing the chairmanship of the students association in Be'er Sheva, and was subsequently re-elected for another term, after she threatened student council member Amir Halila that she would reveal information about his past if he did not help her," the radio said.

At the same time, Gamliel promised Halila that if he backed her, she would name him a director of the student associations' financial arm, "a body that he had already forced to leave under suspicions of theft," the radio said, adding that through Gamliel's intercession, Halila was later promoted to chairman of the financial unit.

Gamliel's heading the Ben-Gurion student association was to prove crucial to her subsequent political success, first as chair of the national students' association and later within the Likud. "The part of Amir Halila not only helped, but was critical to her success," the radio said.

"According to statements by both Halila and Gamliel to student association figures who spoke to us, Amir Halila prevented the collapse of the student council in 2001 and prevented Gamliel's ouster, then in 2002 he enabled her to be re-elected. Both votes were decided by one-vote margins."

Gamliel, who is reportedly under investigation for other suspicions as well, denies all wrongdoing in the matter.

The radio further reported that a month before the primaries, a Likud lawmaker invited a group of Likud Central Committee members to spend the weekend at a Dead Sea resort hotel, receiving one night of free lodging and a discounted rate on the remainder of the weekend. More than 40 Central Committee members accepted the offer.

One of the committee men who took part in the weekend, Shlomo Madmon of Kfar Sava, later told the radio that MK Avraham Hischson had been the "guest of honor" at the weekend.

He said he had been told that the offer of free lodging had been made at the behest of the hotel, which was dedicating its newly renovated facilities.

On Saturday, December 15, Israeli Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein instructed Police Commissioner Shlomo Aharonisky to start a criminal investigation after various contenders, including MK Nehama Ronen, reported vote-paying.

Rubinstein stressed there was no time to waste and everything must be done to conclude the investigation before the January 28 election.

In an interview on "Meet the Press" on Channel Two Saturday, December 15, Rubinstein said the Likud elections seem to reflect a serious deterioration of Israel's democracy.

Several people, mainly from occupied Jerusalem, have offered bribes in return for support at the ballots.

The police will also investigate how organized crime played a part in these elections and will check the connections between Likud candidates and the Gavrieli and Alperon families - which are known to have ties in the underworld.

Police will check whether known criminals have tried, and maybe succeeded, in getting their people on the Likud slate.

One of the contenders who will probably make it into the Knesset is Inbal Gavrieli, whose family has been followed by the police for many years.