Shimon Peres, Israel’s former prime minister, hinted strongly on Tuesday that he would resign from the Labour party to remain in Ariel Sharon’s government. He said he would make a decision in the next few days.
An aide to Sharon and senior Labour politicians said on Tuesday they believe Peres (82) had already decided to quit the party after it dumped him as leader and pulled out of the coalition government, forcing a general election in March.
”He will leave the Labour party … and will join the Sharon government,” an adviser to Sharon, Lior Horev, told The Associated Press. But Labour officials said their former leader, who is renowned for his scheming, may be manoeuvring.
Peres said the issue is which party offers the best prospects for peace.
”The problem is not parties, the problem is how really to build a structure for peace,” he said. ”Mr Sharon took a different direction for a Palestinian state. He wants to continue the peace process.”
Senior Labour figures warned Peres that the prime minister’s plan to create a Palestinian state is a ”hoax” that would perpetuate the conflict. It is not certain that, even if Peres leaves Labour, he will join Sharon’s new party, Kadima, which polls show is likely to emerge as the biggest party in the next Parliament, followed by Labour, but without an outright majority. Sharon’s former party, Likud, is third.
Peres could continue as a Cabinet minister, not as an MP. Horev said if Peres remained in the Cabinet, it would be as minister for development in the Negev desert and Galilee regions of Israel.
It is not clear that Sharon wants to keep Peres on, although he would be delighted to see him out of Labour. Israel radio reported the prime minister is considering appointing Peres as ”special ambassador for peace affairs” with responsibility for talks with Arab governments. That may tempt Peres, who is more respected abroad than at home.
Labour’s secretary general, Eitan Cabel, told army radio that the defection of a Peres ally, Dalia Itzik, to Kadima on Tuesday suggests that Peres is about to jump ship.
”It looks like a package deal,” he said. Another senior Labour politician, Ephraim Sneh, warned Peres against joining Kadima, branding Sharon’s peace plan a ”hoax” that would prolong the conflict.
”Sharon is moving with cleverness, with cunning, to set out a map in the West Bank that is a recipe for the continuation of the conflict,” he said.
Although Peres said on several occasions that he took Labour into Sharon’s government to bring Israel back to negotiations with the Palestinians, he failed to do so. Some in the peace camp said he was too willing to collaborate with Sharon for no real gain. Others suggested he was more interested in retaining a Cabinet seat.
The rise in Labour’s popularity since Amir Peretz became leader is seen as further evidence that Peres is more a liability than a strength. Some Israeli newspapers have urged Peres to retire gracefully, saying that the voters have grown weary of him. The newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth on Tuesday called him ”smug”, ”tired” and a ”dying power”. — Guardian Unlimited Â