Today\'s Labor Party election, which appears to interest the Israeli public only slightly more than last year\'s coal production figures, sees Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer running for Labor leader. The winner will also become the party\'s Prime Ministerial candidate in the next national elections. Burg has already spoken with Prime Minister Sharon about what ministerial position he will assume in the unity government if he wins, while Ben-Eliezer, for his part, says that latest polls show that he will come out on top. Final results are expected sometime during the night.
Arutz-7\'s Haggai Segal spoke to both campaign chairmen today, and each sounded equally optimistic that his man was the winning choice. Arik Hadad said that Ben-Eliezer is \"a great combination of military experience with concern of and knowledge of social issues, a real bulldozer who gets things done, a man of great charisma and a man of the people.\" He backed up his optimism with yesterday\'s Teleseker poll showing Ben-Eliezer winning by 3%; \"this was the same polling company that once showed Burg leading by 37%.\" Hadad said that some voters in the Kibbutz movement \"want us to be Meretz B [i.e., more left-wing], but we want to be Labor A.\"
Yuval Frankel, representing Burg, said that his man has the ability to form a new leadership for the party and also to attract sectors of the population that long ago abandoned Labor. \"I have no doubt that the fact that Burg wears a yarmulke [he is the son of the late National Religious Party leader Dr. Yosef Burg] is very significant for the traditional and religious sectors of the party,\" Frankel said, \"but even more so is the fact that he has reached his high position in the party even though he did not grow up in Labor circles…\"
Arutz-7\'s Haggai Segal spoke to both campaign chairmen today, and each sounded equally optimistic that his man was the winning choice. Arik Hadad said that Ben-Eliezer is \"a great combination of military experience with concern of and knowledge of social issues, a real bulldozer who gets things done, a man of great charisma and a man of the people.\" He backed up his optimism with yesterday\'s Teleseker poll showing Ben-Eliezer winning by 3%; \"this was the same polling company that once showed Burg leading by 37%.\" Hadad said that some voters in the Kibbutz movement \"want us to be Meretz B [i.e., more left-wing], but we want to be Labor A.\"
Yuval Frankel, representing Burg, said that his man has the ability to form a new leadership for the party and also to attract sectors of the population that long ago abandoned Labor. \"I have no doubt that the fact that Burg wears a yarmulke [he is the son of the late National Religious Party leader Dr. Yosef Burg] is very significant for the traditional and religious sectors of the party,\" Frankel said, \"but even more so is the fact that he has reached his high position in the party even though he did not grow up in Labor circles…\"