Israeli Labor party chairman Shimon Peres agreed to convene the party faction and leadership committee next week after it was demanded by 80 leadership committee members.
The convention would be set to decide whether or not to dissolve the party’s coalition talk’s team.
Peres received harsh criticisms over his “double faced†messages in the after math of Likud’s convention decision to disqualify labor as a coalition partner.
Senior Labor MKs, including Matan Vilnai and Avraham Shochat criticized Peres’s Thursday remarks in which he presented himself as the party’s prime ministerial candidate.
Vilnai and Shochat were quick to clarify that Peres will have to vie for the candidacy in the party primaries, calling Peres to stop sending mixed messages, and make efforts to bring about early elections.
On Thursday, Peres rejected mounting demands to dismantle Labor’s coalition negotiating team, and made it clear that he sees himself as a candidate for prime minister.
But, Labor MK Pines-Paz responded: ‘One can’t threaten elections without disbanding the negotiating team; words have to be accompanied by deeds.’
Vilnai and Shochat confirmed their desire to run for the position of Labor candidate for prime minister.
Practically, labor’s call for early elections can only have an impact if joined by Shinui party.
Labor MK Dalia Itziq called upon Peres and Shinui leader Yousif Lapid to meet and jointly call for early elections.
Even as Sharon aids are affirming that the Prime Minister Ariel Sharon intends to continue with efforts to expand the governmental coalition, both, opponents and supporters of Sharon are calling him to not ignore the results of the Likud convention vote.
Sharon, who began a week-long vacation at home on Thursday, knows that a Likud-Labor-Shinui coalition does not stand as an option for expanding the ruling coalition.
Therefore, Sharon would likely be looking for a Likud-Shinui-UTJ, or a Likud-Labor-Shas, or turning back to a pure right wing-ultra-orthodox coalition.
All options, Sharon is left with, would likely force him to retreat, fully or partially, from advancing the implementation of the disengagement plan.
