Last update - 00:00 27/05/2007
Ayalon: If elected Labor chair, I will topple Olmert, stay in gov't
By Mazal Mualem, Haaretz Correspondent
Labor chairmanship candidate MK Ami Ayalon has said that as party leader, he will call a meeting of the Labor Party Central Committee to vote on leaving the current government, led by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and establishing a new government with Olmert's party Kadima.
In private conversations with associates, Ayalon has said he believes conditions are ripe for replacing Olmert and that he wants to be the catalyst for substituting him with another Kadima candidate.
Ayalon's associates said he would work closely with senior Laborites, ministers and Ehud Barak, his opponent in the race for Labor chair, to realize a Central Committee decision against remaining in an Olmert government. The associates said that while Ayalon would not sit in a government with Olmert, he does not want early elections and believes the partnership in the present coalition between Labor and Kadima can continue.
Two days ahead of the primaries, Ayalon and his chief adversary Barak are working for a win on the first round. The weekend polls show that the election, in which five candidates are participating, will not be decided in the first round. Voter participation is predicted to be 65 percent, and both leading candidates are working to raise that number, which will work in the favor of both.
Efforts are also being made to garner support in critical sectors - the kibbutzim and among the minorities. Barak's people are putting indirect pressure on the MKs supporting Ophir Pines-Paz and Ayalon to lead to a first-round victory. In a rally Friday at his Tel Aviv headquarters, Pines-Paz attacked Barak's methods and accused him of using "threats and scare tactics" to get his way. "He will not force our people because they have values, a position and a way, but he has no compunctions about trying."
MK Dani Yatom said he was "ashamed to see my fellow candidates losing the cool so essential for a leader," and that their actions were hurting the party.
Over the weekend Barak focused on the kibbutzim, where Ayalon is considered to be the leading candidate.
At a rally held Saturday at Kibbutz Deganya, Barak said, "Whether you like me or not, only I can beat Bibi [Netanyahu]. We have to win on the first round. Every vote is important. We face challenges from Gaza to Iran. Only experienced leadership can deal with them."
Defense Minister Amir Peretz visited Kibbutz Yagur Saturday in a last-ditch attempt to increase the slim support he enjoys in this sector. "On Monday kibbutz members will decide whether to vote for a candidate close to their ideology or for an ex-kibbutznik who is more obligated to tycoons than to kibbutzniks."
In another rally in Or Yehuda, Peretz came out again against Barak, this time mentioning his exclusive Tel Aviv apartment house address. "I am talking to the kibbutzniks. What do you want to broadcast - that the new kibbutznik is the one who reaches the Akirov Towers? Is that the new ideal?"
Ayalon focused his weekend efforts on the Arab and Druze votes, where he has less support than Barak and Peretz.