The fledgling Liberal Center Party has weathered its first internal crisis and claims this week to be back on course, united and determined to win middle-of-the-road voters at the next election.
The party has put together a 75-member Central Committee which, by common consent, gives fair representation to the various groupings comprising its key strength.
One of the key figures who was disaffected during the internal wranglings that accompanied the LCP’s founding convention last week, Yitzhak Berman, professed himself Tuesday fully satisfied. “These things happen in every party,” the former Likud-Liberal Minister said. “It is a pity it happened to us so early on.”
Berman, together with former Likud Knesseter Yitzhak Yitzhaki, contended that other founding figures in the party — notably Leon Dulzin, the World Zionist Organization chairman, and Shlomo Lahat, the Mayor of Tel Aviv — had sought to deprive their supporters of fair representation in the Central Committee.
Dulzin told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency last week that men like him, Berman, S.Z. Abramov and others were “beyond craving public office” and for that reason he believed the prospects for the reunited party were especially bright.
The veteran leaders would not seek office and honors for themselves but would rather focus on moulding a broad base of public support and a truly liberal domestic platform and moderate foreign policy positions.
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