In the first joint campaign event for Labor leadership hopeful Ami Ayalon and outgoing Labor Chairman and Defense Minister Amir Peretz, which took place at the home of Peretz supporters in the southern city of Ofakim, Peretz said that the cooperation between him and Ayalon will appeal to all Israeli ethnic groups.

Former Shin Bet security service director and naval commander Ayalon was defeated by former prime minister Ehud Barak in the Labor leadership primary on May 28. Peretz came in third, and was therefore disqualified from the second round, scheduled for June 12, which will determine between Ayalon and Barak. Peretz announced on Sunday that he would back Ayalon in the runoff.

In the first round, Peretz received most of the votes in Ofakim, a city situated in close proximity to Peretz's home town of Sderot. Ayalon received only a few dozen votes in the southern city.

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"The Labor party will no longer be forced to apologize to the Mizrahi public," Ayalon said, referring to Barak's 1999 campaign, in which he apologized before all Jews of Middle Eastern descent for the injustices they suffered in Israel for generations.

The defense minister spoke at the event of the importance in voting Ayalon into the party chair position. "You must vote for our joint way. The cooperation between us is a cooperation between all the ethnic groups in Israel."

Ayalon said that without the blessing of the southern towns of Sderot, Netivot and Ofakim, he will not be able to win the primaries, nor will he be able to win in the general elections for Knesset.

Peretz asked his supporters to recruit as many voters as possible for the upcoming primary ballot. He added that despite the hostile treatment he and his supporters had received over the last year, during which Peretz was severely criticized over his performance as defense minister, "this is the time to move forward."

On Monday Ayalon said that he and Peretz disagreed over sitting in a coalition headed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Peretz has so refrained from quitting Olmert's government, while Ayalon has repeatedly said that Olmert must resign due to his harshly criticized conduct during the Second Lebanon War. On Monday, Ayalon left an opening for remaining in Olmert's government, should he defeat Barak, and said the decision would be made in the party's institutions. Peretz, however, has made it clear that he wants to stay in the current coalition, as a minister, a position that would allow him to address social issues.