To consolidate his hold over the Labor Party and to give
himself a stronger bargaining position with prime minister
Sharon, Amir Peretz, leader of the Labor Party since last
Thursday, has insisted that all the current ministers of the
Labor party give him signed letters of resignation.
Peretz is supposed to meet with Sharon. His intent in the
meeting is to reach an agreed-upon date for dissolving the
current government and holding early elections. Sharon has
not publicly said anything about holding early elections, and
he is in no hurry to hold any such meeting. Peretz said he
would submit them to Sharon and allow them to take effect
when the time was right.
The move was intended to preempt a possible decision by
Sharon to fire the ministers and to prevent Sharon from
dividing them by negotiating with those who want to remain in
the government.
In a meeting with the Labor faction on Tuesday, Peretz will
recommend voting against National Religious Party leader
Zevulun Orlev's proposal to dissolve the Knesset when it
comes to a vote on Wednesday. Peretz will meet with Orlev
before the faction meeting and ask him to postpone submitting
the bill for a week because, if it does not pass, a Knesset
dispersal bill would not be allowed to be raised for six more
months.
The Labor central committee will convene on Sunday to approve
leaving the government.
Sources close to Sharon responded to Peretz's move by
accusing him of scaring the Labor ministers into signing the
forms against their will. The sources said that Sharon would
not fire the ministers and that as long as Labor did not vote
to topple the government, the prime minister would not make
any political moves ahead of Thursday's meeting with
Peretz.
Interior Minister Ophir Paz-Pines said that Peretz's move was
a good idea, and Environment Minister Shalom Simhon said the
resignation letters sent an important message.
"After the reports that we intend to rebel against Peretz, we
decided to prove that we are united and that we are giving
Peretz full support," Simhon said.
Peretz will met with opposition leader Yosef Lapid over
breakfast on Tuesday morning. Peretz's spokesman said that
Peretz would not eat any bacon if Lapid served it.
Despite the show of unity, there has been criticism of
Peretz, both public and private. Labor leaders have said that
Peretz' bombastic, headline-grabbing statements are more
fitting for the head of the Histadrut than for the leader of
a political party who has powerful colleagues and who is
really no more than a first-among-equals and not the boss.
There was also criticism of the content of some of Peretz'
statements. He has made strong comments about the need to
raise the minimum wage — which were quickly criticized
by the head of the Manufacturer's Association — as well
as about the importance of continuing the Disengagement on
the West Bank. Labor party members complained that these
statements alienated potential supporters.
