MK Amir Peretz (Labor) threw his hat into the ring for the position of Labor Chair with a blistering attack on Prime Minister Netanyahu whom he called a "peace dodger" and "a discredited figure on the international stage." Peretz, like former Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, who recently joined Kadima, is hoping that the public has forgotten the Second Lebanon War fiasco when Peretz served as Defense Minister and Halutz as COS. Peretz also achieved notoriety in the classic picture where he attempted unsuccessfully to peer at defenses through binoculars blocked by lens caps.
Peretz is now the third declared candidate for the Labor chair, having been preceded by former Welfare Minister Yizchak Herzog and MK and former radio presenter Shelly Yechimovich. While for some people Peretz is a figure worthy of derision, it is worth remembering that in 2006 he defeated Shimon Peres for the Labor chair, forcing Peres to bolt to Kadima. He has already picked up the backing of 3 Knesset members in the reduced labor faction -former Haaretz journalist Daniel Ben-Simon, former minister Raleb Majadleh and former Labour Party Secretary-General Eitan Cabel. The trio have great respect for Peretz's organizational ability, including getting people to register for the Labor primary.
Peretz is counting a on the fact that many middle-class Labor votes have already migrated to Kadima, allowing him to be the favorite son amongst Sephardic voters, while the support of Majadleh - who became a minister thanks to Peretz - will help in the influential Arab sector. Although Arabs generally do not vote for Labor in the general elections, they represent over 20% of the registered Labor voters, and thus are surpassed in organizational strength only by the kibbutz movement.
When Peretz headed the Labor ticket in 2006, he provided Labor with 19 seats. He was still a fresh face at the time and was able to cut into the Likud vote in the southern development towns (Peretz himself is from Sderot). The left is hoping that people such as Peretz or former Shas leader Aryeh Deri can entice enough seats away from the Likud allowing a coalition of the left to take power.
An interesting aspect of the primary fight pits Peretz against Shelley Yechimovich who was originally recruited to the Labor Knesset list by Peretz. Yechimovich is skeptical about a peace agreement in the near future and therefore wants to concentrate exclusively on social issues such as narrowing income gaps. Peretz in contradistinction has always coupled his role as a "povertician" with an extreme dovish position.