New Labor Party head Amir Peretz might be “an attractive option” as Israeli leader, the PLO’s new envoy to Washington said. In his inaugural speech last week as the Palestine Liberation Organization’s envoy to the United States, Afif Safieh said that through Peretz, “today Labor has a window of opportunity for resurfacing and reinvigorating itself.” Safieh, who served 15 years as PLO envoy to London before assuming his new role last month, said the Labor Party did not deserve its positive international reputation, and its dovish demeanor served mostly as a “fig leaf” for the harder line policies of the Likud Party. Safieh, one of the Palestinian delegates to the 1991 Madrid peace talks, also expressed satisfaction that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had left Likud and formed the centrist Kadima party ahead of the March 28 general elections in Israel.
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