On the Hulu Selangor by-election home stretch, Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim has been forced on the defensive as BN ups the attacks against him.

NONE Having slowed down their assault on PKR Hulu Selangor candidate Zaid Ibrahim, the BN is tearing into Anwar accusing him of being a power-crazy traitor who sold his soul to his pro-Israel Jewish friends.

Other issues which have been fodder to the BN campaign have been the string of defections from PKR and the on-going sodomy trial against Anwar.

And what transpired in Parliament yesterday does not do Anwar's case any favour, just adding to the list of items which need explaining.

But true to character, the PKR de facto leader came back fighting by rebutting claims against him, with an eye on winning over the Malay community.

NONE Making up 53 percent of voters, the community is believed to be the deciding factor for the poll, and the impact of the issues raised to attack Anwar and Pakatan is expected to be greater among them.

In fact, compared to his speech to a majority Chinese crowd in Hulu Yam Bahru last night, Anwar stuck out his neck further in trying to defend himself to the 400 majority Malay audience in Kuala Kubu Bharu.

Top of Anwar' s list was former PKR vice-president and now Umno member Ezam Mohd Nor's accusation that Anwar is an ‘Israeli stooge' which made the front page of the Umno-owned newspaper Utusan Malaysia yesterday.

Israel issue a can of worms

"If this is true then I am done for on earth and in the afterlife," he said in his 30-minute long speech, which surpassed his 10-minute speech in Ulu Yam.

The question of Jewish links is in fact an issue which blew up in Anwar's face as it was Pakatan which initially attacked BN for engaging a public relations company Apco, which allegedly has Israeli-links.

This opened a can of worms for the opposition which had to contend with Premier Najib Razak's accusation of Anwar being hypocritical, pointing out that some of his buddies are top US Jewish leaders.

NONE Commenting on leaflets distributed around Kuala Kubu Bharu linking him to the who's who in the global Jewish community ( below ), Anwar took a leaf out of Zaid's play book admitting to being friends with many Jewish leaders, including former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

"But does that mean that I support the US war against Iraq? No!" he told the receptive audience.

At the same time he took a swipe at Najib by saying that he meets former US vice president Al Gore "two or three times a year... as equals" and never has to pay for it.

Najib yesterday told people in Hulu Selangor that he met President Barack Obama on equal footing and did not kowtow to the US president as suggested by the opposition.

On the matter of being sent to privilege committee in Parliament for raising the Apco issue, Anwar played the victim's card, saying that he was being treated unjustly.

NONE "If I had made wild allegations then never mind, but I produced evidence. So what is wrong with the system?" he asked.

He also brought in the fatwa by international Muslim scholar Yusof Qardawi, who had defended Anwar against the sodomy charges, calling all who are involved in making the allegation, munafik (hyprocrites).

Faced with relentless assaults on this front, PKR has mounted a strong defence on the issue, passing out leaflets with snapshots of the medical report saying that there is no conclusive evidence that complainant Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan was sodomised.

S tring of Umno defections

Anwar also belittled the publicity surrounding the defections from PKR, particularly in the lead up to the upcoming by-election, saying that those who left were nobodies.

He, however, took it a notch higher by reminding the audience that Umno too had a string of defections in its illustrious history, and from much higher ranking members.

onn jaafar Umno's first president Onn Jaafar ( left ), and second president Tunku Abdul Rahman both quit the party.

Third president and Najib's father, Abdul Razak Hussein died and the fourth president, Hussein Onn, also quit, he noted.

"PKR only has division heads leaving the party and already it becomes front page news. This is politics in Malaysia," he said.

He also used the opportunity to explain what happened to his Sept 16 federal takeover plan, saying that he did not lie or misuse the Agong's name, as suggested by the BN.

He even went as far as producing copies of the letters he sent to the Agong and then prime minister Abdullah Badawi seeking a special Parliament session for a vote of no-confidence in the government.

"If I didn't have the numbers then how could I have asked for the special parliament session?" he asked.

While the audience at Kuala Kubu Bharu appeared to walk away convinced, the jury is still out on whether Anwar can turn things around with only the two days left before polling.