"Together we'll be victorious over the Likud" was the message of unity delivered by newly-elected Labor Party Chairman Amram Mitzna early this morning. Mitzna, who is currently the Mayor of Haifa, won a decisive victory in yesterday's primaries, bringing in a surprising 53.9% of the vote. Former Defense Minister and outgoing party leader Binyamin Ben-Eliezer was runner-up with 38.2%, and MK Chaim Ramon trailed badly with only 7.2%. Voter turnout was 59.5% of the 110,000 party members.
Unity was the theme of Mitzna's victory speech as he called on both Ben-Eliezer and Ramon to join him on stage. "We are all one, shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand," Mitzna said, "not in separate camps, but in one large camp of Labor party representatives." Ben-Eliezer was slightly less gracious, promising to retain his sizeable camp of supporters even as he works to defeat the Likud in the upcoming elections. Mitzna has his work cut out for him, as polls predict that the Likud party will thrash Labor in the Knesset elections at the end of January.
Yasser Arafat, known as the father of modern-day terrorism, welcomed Amram Mitzna with a large bear hug this morning, saying he plans to work together with him in order to complete the 'peace process' begun by the late Yitzchak Rabin. It is not clear whether Mitzna was happy with Arafat's gleeful vote of confidence, in light of warnings by Ben-Eliezer that a Mitzna win would cause many "centrist" voters to vote for the Likud and not for Mitzna's extreme left-wing policies. Ben-Eliezer said yesterday, before the victor was declared, that if the Haifa mayor and former IDF General leads Labor in the coming election, the party would lose ten Knesset seats in favor of the Likud.
The next Labor Party battle will be tomorrow, when the decision will be made as to how to choose the list of Labor candidates for the Knesset. The battle lines have already been drawn: Mitzna, Avraham Burg, and others demand primaries, while Ben-Eliezer's camp says the list should be determined by an internal party forum. A compromise may be in the offing, whereby the regional candidates will be chosen separately and differently from the others.
Unity was the theme of Mitzna's victory speech as he called on both Ben-Eliezer and Ramon to join him on stage. "We are all one, shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand," Mitzna said, "not in separate camps, but in one large camp of Labor party representatives." Ben-Eliezer was slightly less gracious, promising to retain his sizeable camp of supporters even as he works to defeat the Likud in the upcoming elections. Mitzna has his work cut out for him, as polls predict that the Likud party will thrash Labor in the Knesset elections at the end of January.
Yasser Arafat, known as the father of modern-day terrorism, welcomed Amram Mitzna with a large bear hug this morning, saying he plans to work together with him in order to complete the 'peace process' begun by the late Yitzchak Rabin. It is not clear whether Mitzna was happy with Arafat's gleeful vote of confidence, in light of warnings by Ben-Eliezer that a Mitzna win would cause many "centrist" voters to vote for the Likud and not for Mitzna's extreme left-wing policies. Ben-Eliezer said yesterday, before the victor was declared, that if the Haifa mayor and former IDF General leads Labor in the coming election, the party would lose ten Knesset seats in favor of the Likud.
The next Labor Party battle will be tomorrow, when the decision will be made as to how to choose the list of Labor candidates for the Knesset. The battle lines have already been drawn: Mitzna, Avraham Burg, and others demand primaries, while Ben-Eliezer's camp says the list should be determined by an internal party forum. A compromise may be in the offing, whereby the regional candidates will be chosen separately and differently from the others.