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November 22, 2002/Kislev 17 5763, Vol. 55, No. 13
Labor victor now begins the hard part
NAOMI SEGAL
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - If Haifa Mayor Amram Mitzna hopes to becomes Israel's next prime minister, he faces a daunting challenge: resuscitating a moribund Labor Party in a little more than two months.
A day after the dovish newcomer to national politics won a sweeping victory in Labor's leadership primary, political observers warned Mitzna that he had only passed the easy part.
The Israeli daily Ha'aretz noted that Mitzna has an extraordinarily short time to consolidate his position in Labor, neutralize potentially hostile camps within the party, win the loyalty of senior party members, organize a national election campaign and inject new life into a dispirited party.
Even then, his chances of winning the Jan. 28 national elections are considered slim: Polls show the Likud Party with a daunting lead over Labor.
Essentially, one commentator noted in the Nov. 20 Jerusalem Post, Labor members chose Mitzna to be the next opposition leader, not the next prime minister.
The final results of the Nov. 19 primaries bore out the predictions of exit polls: Mitzna received 54 percent of the vote, incumbent chairman Benjamin Ben-Eliezer won about 39 percent and legislator Haim Ramon won slightly more than 7 percent.
The soft-spoken Mitzna immediately extended an olive branch to his two Labor rivals in a bid to unite forces in preparation for the national campaign.
Critical to this undertaking will be reconciliation with Ben-Eliezer, whose withdrawal from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's unity government - Ben-Eliezer had been defense minister - precipitated Sharon's decision to call elections.
Mitzna, 57, is a former general who clashed with then-Defense Minister Sharon during the 1982 Lebanon War and commanded Israeli troops in the West Bank during the first intifada in the late 1980s. His tenure as Haifa mayor generally is considered successful - the city is seen as a model for Arab-Jewish coexistence - but opponents accuse him of being too close to business interests and allowing for virtually unchecked real estate development.
Continuing an Israeli tradition of placing their faith in white knights with little political experience - Ehud Barak and Amnon Lipkin-Shahak were two other ex-generals seen briefly as political saviors, but whose stars quickly burned out - Mitzna burst onto the national stage just several months ago and instantly became the leading candidate for Labor's chairmanship.
Described as aloof, somewhat stiff and yet open to counsel, Mitzna galvanized a left wing thrown into disarray when the peace process collapsed in the terrorist waves of the intifada.
The national election will come into greater focus after the Nov. 28 primary in the Likud, when Sharon faces off against Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Writing in Ha'aretz, political commentator Yoel Marcus wrote that Mitzna will stand a better chance if the Likud is led by Netanyahu, who espouses a harder line than Sharon.
Using Netanyahu as a foil, Sharon has presented himself as a responsible elder statesman committed to an eventual peace with the Palestinians and to maintaining close ties with the United States.
Mitzna's situation will be far worse if the Likud leadership remains with Sharon, whose popularity only grows as the intifada intensifies and who has the ability to "eat naive politicians for breakfast," Marcus wrote.
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