Labor MK Yuli Tamir: 'If Elected, Amir Peretz Would Meet Immediately With Palestinian Leaders To Negotiate Roadmap' 'Peretz Will Make Socio-Economic Situation The Core Issue Of Election Campaign' Cabinet Minister Sheetrit: 'Sephardi Voters Will Not Flock To Peretz Because He Was Born In Morocco'
It’s still early days and it’s still a long shot but Laborites are saying that Amir Peretz, the newly elected Labor leader, could win the March 28th election. The Peretz victory has galvanized the Labor party into action. Labor trails the Kadima party of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon by only six or seven seats in the latest polls. Labor MK Yuli Tamir, a close supporter of Peretz who is helping to run the campaign, is upbeat about Labor’s comeback.
Who is Amir Peretz, the newly elected Labor party leader and what are his policies? Peretz has shaken up Israeli politics and his supporters believe he has what it takes to win the upcoming election.
The meteoric rise by Peretz has triggered a twenty-five percent increase in the party membership. The latest polls show that Peretz trails the Prime Minister Ariel Sharon by only six or seven Knesset seats. This reflects a mounting concern among Israeli voters over the growing gap between ‘the haves and have-nots’ in Israeli society today. Peretz is proving to be a formidable campaigner and has fired up the Labor party for the first time in years. Labor MK Yuli Tamir, one of his closest supporters, says Peretz will make the social justice question the core issue of the election campaign. Sharon and Likud opponents charge that Peretz only looked out for high-salary workers and ignored low-wage income earners. Tamir rejects this saying Peretz is a social-democrat, of the West European model, who will seek to raise the minimum wage in Israel. In Sharon’s camp, Finance Minister Ehud Olmert charges that Peretz draws his economic ideas from the former U.S.S.R. and if elected, he would destroy the country’s economy.
On the Palestinian issue, Tamir says Peretz would meet immediately with Palestinian leaders to start negotiating the Roadmap that calls for a Palestinian state. Labor believes that Moroccan born Peretz has a good chance of attracting many Sepharadi voters who traditionally vote Likud. However, Sharon cabinet minister Meir Sheetrit rejects the idea that Sepharadi voters will now flock to Peretz. Sheetrit, who was also born in Morocco, says if that were so, he himself would have been elected Prime Minister years ago; that’s because there are some one and a half million Moroccan Jews living in Israel.