JERUSALEM, 29 November 2005 — Israeli elder statesman Shimon Peres may leave the Labor Party that ousted him as its leader and join Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s new centrist list, a spokesman for Peres said yesterday.
The defection of the 82-year-old Peres would represent a vote of confidence by the Nobel peace laureate in Sharon’s oft-repeated pledge to make “painful concessions” for peace with the Palestinians.
Branded a “loser” by political satirists for repeated defeats in national elections, Peres may nonetheless be a vote-getter for Sharon by attracting some of Labor’s liberal electorate in Israel’s March 28 ballot.
Israeli media reports said Sharon had offered Peres the job of peace envoy if the prime minister’s new Kadima party wins the general election, Israeli media reports said.
“They very much want him,” Yoram Dori, a spokesman for Peres, said about officials in Kadima. But he said no specific job had been discussed and Peres was “considering what would be the best way to contribute to Israel in the coming years.”
“It is a very difficult decision as it is so tied up with historic and other considerations,” Peres told reporters on Sunday. “It will take me a day or two to decide.” Peres was stunned at his defeat in a Nov. 9 Labor leadership election to trade union chief Amir Peretz, whose decision to pull the party out of the Cabinet over social welfare issues reshuffled the political deck in Israel.
“They don’t want me in Labor,” Peres was quoted as telling confidants. Labor officials have floated an offer to name him honorary party president, a prospect he rejected in the past.
But at a meeting of Labor legislators yesterday, Peretz called on Peres to “come and be part of the big change” the new leader said the party is going to carry out.
“Don’t allow yourself to be dragged away because all that being said today has no basis,” Peretz said in broadcast remarks. “We see you as being...a most important partner when the moment comes and the Labor Party returns to power.”
