Dramatic night at Labor Party central committee meet

The Jerusalem Post ^ | 14 March 2003 | TOVAH LAZAROFF AND HILARY LEILA KRIEGER

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Mar. 14, 2003 Dramatic night at Labor Party central committee meet By TOVAH LAZAROFF AND HILARY LEILA KRIEGER

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An evening that began with victory for Labor Party leader Amram Mitzna ended with calls for his resignation after many of his supporters Thursday had left the central committee meeting in Tel Aviv.

Labor whip Dalia Itzik called for early party leadership elections within three to four month instead of waiting for next year.

The problems started following a show of support, 78 to 46, for a proposal by MK Ephraim Sneh to change the party's political platform to follow the guidelines of Mitzna's main opponent, former defense minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer. It was the first central committee meeting since the elections.

"This is an attack on my leadership of the party," Mitzna said. "Then resign," audience members called out.

Mitzna said the vote was meaningless and would not shake his party leadership. It was not the first time that Sneh and Ben-Eliezer had tried to damage him, he said.

"Why are you portraying this as an attack against you?" shouted Sneh, who said he was simply working to strengthen the party and fight terror.

But Labor Party member Haim Ramon, who himself had attacked Mitzna earlier in the evening, said the vote had nothing to do with the party's political agenda, declaring that it would only divide the party. "I'm very worried about the party s future," he added.

Following the vote, Mitzna left the auditorium. He later said he was more committed than ever to working for the party.

Earlier in the evening he had called himself a "long-distance runner" and pledged to bring the party back from defeat to victory. He added a note for those he knew were challenging his leadership: "I m not stepping down."

For hours in the crowded and noisy Tel Aviv auditorium, party members and MKs debate the party s future and Mitzna s leadership in heated exchanges that at times broke out into shouting matches.

MK Ophir Pines-Paz said that while the moment had come for some soul-searching, he urged the party to support Mitzna. The party will regain public trust when it stops indulging in self-destructive practices such as destroying its leaders.

[ambrose]

hahaha... you know the old saying... never get in the way of enemy that is in the process of hanging himself...

[dinok]

Didn't the Communists in Russia have a "Central Committee"?

No wonder why that party is in the toilet.