It’s a no-confidence vote by members of his own party. Say buh-bye, Amir.
Ehud Barak won the first round of the battle for the Labor party chairmanship. As of 5 a.m. Tuesday, with all votes tallied, he led Ami Ayalon 35.6% to 30.6 percent. But Barak can’t declare victory quite yet.
Since he failed to break the 40 percent bar necessary to win Labor party primaries, a run-off between the two top contenders will be held on June 12.
Voter turnout for the primary elections reached 65.2 percent. Amir Peretz, the current chairman, came in far behind, with 22.4% of the votes. The other two candidates, Ophir Pines-Paz and Danny Yatom, had slighting more than 10% of votes combined.
He’s such a loser he can’t even tell when he’s a loser.
Peretz, despite his loss, said he still has a strong camp of supporters able to make waves within the party. “My camp is an obedient one that will go in the direction I will choose,” he said in a closed meeting, after election results came out.
Dude. Put a giant “L” on your forehead. Stick a fork in him. He’s done.
Hi Meryl –
While Amir Peretz may have lost this round, he’s far from disappearing from Israel’s political scene. Both Ayalon and Barak are seriously courting Peretz to pick up his endorsement for the next election round.
Unfortunately, Peretz is going to be around a long time…
Barak is an improvement, to be sure. But is this the best Labor can do? As a long-time Labor Zionist I shudder, but the answer may be “yes.”
Actually, Peretz is being true to his past as a labor union thug. In the past he would call strikes to force his will on the country. He will probably try to cause trouble unless people obey him even when it is counterproductive.