Peretz to PM Sharon: We must set date for early elections

Only hours after his dramatic victory, newly-elected Labor Party Chairman Amir Peretz said on Thursday that he told Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that an agreed-upon date for early general elections must be determined.

Peretz said that, if no agreement is reached, he will move to formulate a majority in the Knesset in favor of early elections.

Sharon telephoned Peretz on Thursday morning to congratulate him on his win in the Labor Party primaries. The two decided to meet on Sunday.

Lawmakers began preparing Thursday for the prospect of early general elections, following the shock win by Peretz in the Labor Party leadership primary the night before.

Likud minister Yisrael Katz said on Thursday that Peretz's election would propel early general elections, and that he intended to convene the Likud secretariat early next week to discuss preparations for the possible vote.

In his victory speech Thursday morning, Peretz reiterated his long-held pledge to take the party out of Sharon's shaky coalition, which would leave the government without a majority.

MKs Zevulun Orlev (National Religious Party Union) and Yitzhak Levy (National Union) both intend to next week present bills calling for the dissolution of parliament and early elections.

The current Knesset, if it runs its full term, will end in November 2006.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) said that Peretz' election would lead to early elections, and said that he will convene the Likud Central Committee next week to prepare the party for the ballot.

Earlier Thursday, coalition ledaer MK Gideon Sa'ar (Likud) dismissed Peretz' election saying voters had made a mistake in choosing him.

"The Labor Party has chosen someone lacking in any government or political experience to be its candidate for prime minister, in a country with complex security problems, an ongoing political battle and a state economy that must compete with the most advanced markets in the world," Sa'ar told Army Radio.

Sa'ar added that Peretz wants to pull out of the government in any event, as he is an inexperienced, reckless and radical politician, both in his political and economic views.

According to Sa'ar, Peretz, who led raucous strikes that caused damage to the economy, would want to prevent the passage of a state budget with a strong social emphasis to increase his own political gain.

Peretz has repeatedly stated that he would pull Labor out of Sharon's ruling coalition, a pledge he reiterated in his victory speech early Thursday.

By Thursday morning, outgoing Labor chairman Shimon Peres had still not called Peretz to offer his congratulations, while the newly-elected chairman issued a plea for support from the veteran politician.

"Shimon, I want you by my side," Peretz said to Peres in his victory speech. "Don't leave us alone, Shimon. If not for me, then do it for the party's sake; if not for the party, then do it for the country."

Shinui chairman Yosef Lapid told Israel Radio on Thursday that the result of the Labor vote was the greatest upheaval in Israeli politics since 1977, when Menachem Begin's Likud won the general elections and ousted Labor from power for the first time since the state was created in 1948.

Lapid described Labor as an "anti-reform" party that now had a "social demagogue" as its leader.

Meretz-Yahad chairman Yossi Beilin congratulated Peretz on his victory and called on Labor to stand by the call of its newly-elected chairman to quit the government at once.

MK Effi Eitam (National Religious Zionism) called on Peretz to begin negotiations with the opposition parties to determine a date for imminent parliamentary elections.

	Former Labor prime ministers Shimon Peres and Ehud Barak at Peres' campaign headquarters in Tel Aviv early Thursday. (Alon Ron)