A recent survey has Amir Peretz very worried. In this
particular survey the Labor Party Chairman came in fourth
among various possible candidates for party chairman. Even
his bitter rival, former prime minister Ehud Barak, was ahead
of him in the survey.
Peretz is facing a real battle of survival and his decision
whether or not to resign from the government now that
Lieberman has been brought in was heavily influenced by the
exigencies of this battle.
Peretz is in quite a quagmire. If he had decided to resign
and go into the opposition his fellow party members would
immediately draw their swords and the race for the party
chairmanship would be off and running. Peretz would have
plenty of competition on his hands since half of the party's
MKs consider themselves better suited than Peretz to head the
party. Add to the list candidates who are not Knesset
members, e.g. Ehud Barak, and we have a list of at least 10
candidates.
On the other hand, staying in the government alongside
Lieberman damages Peretz' image and his chances of retaining
his post in the future. The Labor Party has a number of Arab
members who have a major impact on the party chairman's image
and they are very angry with Peretz for not resigning and
will settle the score when the time comes.
This is exactly what happened when a certain prime minister
from the Labor Party got a taste of the Arab public's wrath.
That PM was none other than Ehud Barak, whose Arab
constituents did not go to the polls when he ran against
Ariel Sharon. Their reluctance to support him followed the
bloody October 2000 that claimed the lives of 13 Arab-
Israelis. Their reaction was one of the decisive factors in
Barak's defeat.
Several Labor MKs are also likely to take advantage of
resentment toward Peretz for serving alongside Lieberman,
using it for their own political gain. Paz-Pines has already
resigned from the Cabinet and announced that he will run for
the party leadership.
Peretz seems to have opted for short-term survival —
chayei sho'oh. For now he will keep his post. What
does the future hold in store for him? Only time can tell.
Netanyahu's Memory Problem
At a recent memorial ceremony for Rechavam Ze'evi Hy"d
Opposition Chairman Bibi Netanyahu shared some memories of
his assassinated colleague: "I must tell you that when Gandhi
[Ze'evi] served as a minister in the government I headed he
conducted himself with wisdom, solidarity, responsibility and
always with humanity and decency..." Netanyahu went on
singing the praises of his late colleague, describing how he
always couched his objections in diplomatic terms.
But there's one little problem: Ze'evi never served as
minister under Netanyahu. As soon as he stepped down from the
podium several MKs pointed out the obvious error. An
embarrassed Netanyahu had no choice other than to return to
the microphone and try to straighten out the matter.
What he had been referring to, Netanyahu explained, is that
while he was serving as opposition chairman during the Rabin
government Ze'evi, an opposition board member, would come to
the weekly board meetings.
In a similar incident several weeks ago, Netanyahu shared
some of his childhood memories during an interview for
Yediot Achronot, including the sight of British
soldiers walking through Jerusalem's Talpiot neighborhood.
But again, there's one little problem: Netanyahu was born in
1949, a year after the founding of the State, when British
soldiers were no longer to be seen in the streets.
And even if a few British soldiers might appear here and
there, certainly it must have been hard for Netanyahu to
retrieve memories from such a tender age.
Normally we would assume a person who utters such remarks is
unable to distinguish between reality and fantasy. But when
the person in question is a distinguished figure who heads a
major political party, a former prime minister, a former
finance minister, a former foreign minister, the current
opposition chairman and a leading candidate for the prime
minister's office in the future, making such a determination
is not easy.
Not easy, but not impossible.
