Israeli leader reportedly leaving Likud (AP) Updated: 2005-11-21 07:37
Separately, Palestinians are concentrating on their own parliamentary
election, set for Jan. 25, with the violent Islamic group Hamas running
candidates for the first time and posing a significant challenge to the ruling
Fatah Party of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
Fatah primary elections began Saturday in the desert oasis of Jericho, and as
expected, the Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat won the nomination for the
town's only seat, election officials said Sunday.
This month's surprise election of Peretz, a fiery union leader, as head of
Labor accelerated the spiral toward early elections.
Labor joined Sharon's coalition government in January to buttress support for
the Gaza pullout, but in one of his first moves, Peretz extracted letters of
resignation from the eight Labor Cabinet ministers last week.
In a strident campaign speech, his first as party leader, Peretz told the
convention that Sharon had partially corrected his mistake of building
settlements in Gaza by pulling out, but he charged that in constructing them in
the first place, Sharon had wasted "billions that could have been used to turn
the education system around."
Blaming Sharon and his ex-finance minister Benjamin Netanyahu for increasing
poverty and "humiliating" the poor, Peretz appealed to Israel's lower classes,
traditionally Likud voters. "Come join the new social pact," he said, "you are
not abandoning Likud. Likud has abandoned you," emphasizing social issues over
Israel's traditional election deciders — security and the Palestinian issue.
In a brief reference to Mideast peacemaking, Peretz said he favors a united
Jerusalem as Israel's capital and opposes permitting Palestinian refugees to
return to Israel — an attempt to counter efforts to portray him as an extreme
dove who would make far-reaching concessions to the Palestinians.
He also said that creation of a Palestinian state is in Israel's interest as
well as the Palestinians'.
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