Peres, Barak compromise on June 29 election (for Israeli Labour Party leader)

The Jerusalem Post ^ | 9 December 2004 | GIL HOFFMAN

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Peres, Barak compromise on June 29 election
By GIL HOFFMAN

Labor chairman Shimon Peres and former prime minister Ehud Barak tentatively compromised on a June 29 date for the next Labor leadership race on Thursday, following shuttle diplomacy by Labor faction chair Dalia Itzik.

The compromise ended a bitter, week-long confrontation between Peres and Barak that culminated with the intervention of Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz and Police Insp. Gen. Moshe Karadi. But Peres said the compromise was contingent on the agreement of the rest of Labor's top brass ahead of Sunday's key Labor central committee meeting.

"I will accept any compromise that all of the party's leaders agree with," Peres said. "What matters is the continuation of the peace process and the implementation of the disengagement and this requires a national-unity government. Nothing else matters."

Before the compromise, central committee members were set to choose on Sunday between possible election dates in November February, March, and April. Labor leadership candidate Matan Vilna'i intends to oppose the June date and press for elections on March 22.

"Holding elections in the summer in the heat of the disengagement would prove that the party is disconnected from the Israeli reality," Vilna'i said. "The best election date is one that would not drag the party into a long, wasteful, and ugly campaign. The witch hunt surrounding the election date must stop and all personal interest must be cast aside."

Itzik said she would continue negotiating with "everyone in the world" until Sunday to ensure that Labor's central committee would look nothing like that of the stormy Likud.

"We'll reach a compromise, but the damage and the bad blood will remain," Itzik said. "There are plenty of big egos in the party, not just Peres and Barak."

The Peres-Barak feud centered on signatures that Barak loyalists submitted to the party's appellate tribunal requesting Sunday's vote. When the court ruled in favor of forcing Peres to convene the central committee, Peres alleged that two of the attorneys on the tribunal had signed Barak's petition and therefore were not impartial.

When one of the attorneys said her signature had been forged, Labor attorney Eldad Yaniv asked Mazuz and Karadi to investigate the matter. Peres and Barak both denied any involvement in forging the signature.

"The Barak campaign is devoted solely to advancing processes that will strengthen Labor and returning it to its members, in order to return the party to its rightful place as a real alternative to the Likud. "The Barak campaign will take no part in mudslinging [from Peres] intended to hold on to the reins of power."

Meanwhile, Labor's executive committee is set to meet on Saturday night to authorize Peres to begin coalition negotiations with the Likud, pending the results of Thursday night's Likud vote.

A group of nine MKs led by Avraham Shochat intend to submit a proposal to the committee to join the government until a Gaza withdrawal while requesting a change in the government's priorities on economic and social issues. They also requested that Shochat be added to the coalition negotiating team.

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Barak, at least, has learned to be realistic about the Palestinians and their intentions. Peres, OTOH...