The victory of a longtime and outspoken dove in the Labor Party primaries is certain to have a pronounced effect on the party’s national election campaign.
Tourism Minister Uzi Baram’s unexpected win the Monday’s primary comes at a time when Labor had been seen as deliberately adopting a more hardline posture in the wake of the recent wave of Hamas suicide bombings against Israel.
Labor officials adopted this stance to position the party closer to the center of the political spectrum at a time when Israelis were beginning to question the fruits of the peace process with the Palestinians.
But the estimated 200,000 rank-and-file Labor Party members who voted in the primaries set aside official party posture and gave their overwhelming support to a pronounced dove.
The results will presumably be welcomed by Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who has often contended that his peace policies are more popular among the general public than some politicians and pundits imagine.
The results will also likely oblige Peres – if he wins the race for prime minister – to offer Baram a senior job in the new Cabinet.
Israeli will go to the polls May 29 to elect a new Knesset and, in a separate ballot, the prime minister.
Baram, for his part, noted pointedly in interviews Tuesday that his interests extend to “foreign and domestic affairs,” a hint that he would consider the Foreign Ministry suitable recognition of his now-proven strength in the party.
Baram, 59, emerged as the second most popular figure in Israel’s ruling Labor Party, defeating two self-proclaimed future prime ministerial hopefuls, Foreign Minister Ehud Barak and Interior Minister Haim Ramon.
Baram took the No. 2 spot behind Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who was already chosen the party’s candidate for prime minister and was therefore assured the top slot.
The results for Ramon, 46, were something of a disappointment.
But he took it in good stride, insisting that his goal had been to reach one of the first five places.
Baram made it clear that no longer necessarily accepts the conventional wisdom that Barak, the former Israel Defense Force chief of staff, and Ramon, the former Histadrut chairman, would battle between themselves for the succession to the prime ministership when Peres, if re-elected, steps down in 1999.
“If Haim Ramon shows leadership qualities, I will support him,” Baram said Tuesday.
But if things worked out differently in the years ahead, he added, he would see himself as a possible alternative.
Significantly, Baram signaled that he would not support the harder-line Barak for the party leadership.
Baram’s dyed-in-the-wool dovishness attracted public attention in the late 1980s, when he refused to join a Likud-Labor government of national unity on the grounds that the Likud’s opposition to peace moves would paralyze the government.
He was among the first of Labor’s Knesset members to call openly for mutual recognition between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
A onetime secretary general of Labor, Baram is a second-generation party activist. His father, Moshe Baram, led the socialist movement in Jerusalem for decades and served as a minister under Prime Ministers Golda Meir and Yitzhak Rabin in the 1970s.
Political observers attributed Baram’s unexpected success to his nonconfrontational personality. He is universally liked within the party and well-though of in his post at the Tourism Ministry.
While Barak and Ramon were going to each other as the primary campaign drew to its lose, Baram seemed to rise above the maelstrom, projecting an image of tranquil solidarity.
Finishing in sixth place in the Labour primary was Finance Minister Avraham Shochat, followed by Nissim Zvilli – a spot protected for the party’s secretary general – and Health Minister Ephraim Sneh.
Ninth place, a spot promised to the woman who finished first in the primary, was taken by Dalia Itzik; Deputy Defense Minister Ori Orr came in next, followed by Minister Yossi Bilin, Peres’ closest adviser on foreign policy matters.
Voters in the primary “punished” some lackluster Cabinet figures, including Trade Minister Michael Harish, who was squeezed out of the list of so-called “safe seats,” positions that are expected to win seats in the next Knesset.
For Labor, that magic number is between 44 and 46, according to recent opinion polls.
Voters also dealt a blow to Minister of Religious Affairs Shimon Shetreet, who has embarrassed the prime minister by some high-profile moves against the Orthodox establishment.
He dropped to No. 42 and might find himself even lower if the party leadership decides to advance a representative of him immigrant population to a safe slot.
Likud spokesmen were quick to brand the Labor results as reflecting “a lurch to the left.”
The Labor primary produced 14 “new faces” among the first 44 names on the list, and the party’s campaign is now expected to accentuate the new blood injected into the party’s veins.
Among the salient new names: * Shlomo Ben-Ami, Moroccan-born professor of history at Tel Aviv University and former Israel ambassador to Madrid.
Ben Ami is seen as the ultimate Israeli success story: a poor immigrant child from North Africa who went on to win the highest academic accolades, recently combining research with diplomacy.
Peres will almost certainly offer him a Cabinet seat if the prime minister wins the May election. * Tsalli Reshef, Jerusalem attorney, wealthy businessman and longtime leader of Peace Now. An accomplishment public speaker, he is speaker, he is expected to rise quickly through the labor ranks. * Ron Huldai, highly regard head of the leading “Herzliya” high school in Tel Aviv. He dramatically resigned to embark on a political career, declaring that he believes that he can make a genuinely original contribution to public life. * Addis Masala, a leading activist in the Ethiopian immigrant community who came to Israel in 1980. He was preferred over several Russian candidates to fill a safe slot allotted to an immigrant candidate.
The secular Meretz bloc, which is in a coalition with the Labor government, held its primary Sunday. The bloc, which is in a coalition with the Labor government, held its primary Sunday. The bloc’s 10 Knesset incumbents who ran in the primary won the top 10 slots on the Meretz list.
Communications Minister Shulamit Aloni, who helped found Meretz in 1992, decided in January not to run in the current elections after the party leadership was assumed by Environment Minister Yossi Sarid.
But she, along with Absorption Minister Yair Tsaban, who also did not run, is expected to remain active in the movement.
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