A Family Affair

Israelis gathered around their televisions Thursday night to hear Ariel Sharon refute allegations of a scandal. The furor surrounds a $1.5 million loan from a foreign supporter that has sent his re-election campaign into a spin. As part of a convoluted series of financial maneuvers, Sharon's sons used the money to pay off illegal campaign contributions from a previous electoral run that regulators told Sharon to return. On TV, Sharon said the loan had been repaid, and that he hadn't closely followed how his sons had tried to clean up the campaign-funding mess. But he didn't stop there. As Sharon railed...