Labor official: Peretz not in control of faction
Senior minister tells Ynet defense minister has 'become a joke', both to public and to party; 'Peretz-Olmert-Halutz triumvirate's careers at an end,' official says
Following a Tuesday evening meeting of the Finance Committee, during which fellow Labor party members Orit Noked and Avishay Braverman threatened to reject proposed budget cuts advanced by Defense Minister Amir Peretz, senior party members stated that "Peretz's days as party chairman are numbered."
The shouts emanating from the committee meeting opened a veritable Pandora's box in the Labor party, in particular within the Knesset faction itself. For the first time since the primaries, senior party officials said: "There's nothing that Peretz can do in the faction, there's no decision he can make. Other than the ministers and maybe the party's Faction Chairman Ephraim Sneh, no one will stand beside him and support him. Even Shelly Yacimovich opposes his demands regarding the budget."
A quick count of Peretz' opponents and proponents in the Labor Knesset faction reveals only six solid supporters: Ministers Shalom Simhon, Ofir Pines-Paz, Isaac Herzog, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Eitan Cabel and Yuli Tamir. In the best-case scenario, MK Sneh counts as a seventh.
All other faction members, 11 in number, are operating against Peretz, openly or covertly. Even MKs Yacimovich and Yoram Marciano, considered close to the defense minister, announced that they will oppose his proposal for budget cuts.
According to one Labor official, "we are in a unique situation where Peretz can't determine faction decisions. He is a political joke to most of his colleagues in the faction. Amir, for the first time, is in real trouble." Many party members posit that Olmert may change the coalition makeup, which would lead to an end of Peretz's political career.
'Peretz has become a joke'
A senior Labor minister said that Peretz has 'turned into a joke', both in the eyes of the public and the eyes of the party. According to the minister, who spoke on condition of anonymity, "there are many holes in the Labor party…The bottom line is that the Olmert-Peretz-Halutz triumvirate have ended their careers. Their departure is only a matter of time."
"What's happening in the Labor party is almost mutiny. No one gives a hoot about Amir Peretz, and everyone does what he feels like…It is clear that Peretz will not cross the threshold from union leader to national leader…The war in Lebanon proved that no one listens to him," the minister continued.
Nonetheless, the minister doesn't think that the government will be dismantled and reorganized in the near future, because doing so would require Olmert to reject his moderate stance and embrace MKs such as Liberman and Netanyahu. "Olmert won't make such a move. It requires a leader with daring," the minister declared.
Voices of support
However, there are those who call for the Labor party to unite behind Peretz and attack MKs who decided to vote against budget cuts. Minister of Agriculture Shalom Simhon issued a statement saying that "the disgusting behavior cheapens Israeli politics and pulls the rug from under the party system."
"Opposing the budget cuts stinks of political motivations whose objective is to bring about the departure of the Labor party from the coalition. MKs must remember that such a decision must be determined by party instructions and not by drawing lines in the sand."
Minister of Infrastructure Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, echoed these sentiments in an interview with Ynet and called upon MKs to put personal considerations aside and vote in favor of budget cuts.
"The political issue doesn't worry me. What worries me is that, three months from now, there could be another war…The faster we rehabilitate the home front, the better we'll be able to protect the nation. I ask MKs to demonstrate civic responsibility at this time," he said.
