Amir Peretz - Chairman of the Labour Party in Israel

"I have a dream that one day Israeli and Palestinian children will play together," he said.

"Violence is gnawing at the essence of Israeli democracy," Peretz said. "Violence is not only in the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict, it's between us."

"Had we stopped the violence in the territories, we would have stopped violence among us. The ongoing occupation in the territories is a recipe for the loss of values in Israel. We need a road map of morals."

"Ending the occupation and a final status agreement are synonymous to protecting human values," he said.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/644457.html

 

Profile: Amir Peretz
By Jonathan Marcus
BBC Diplomatic correspondent

Amir Peretz, leader of the Israeli trade union federation Histadrut, has supplanted Labour's veteran leader Shimon Peres at a critical moment both for his country and for the politics of the region.

Born in Morocco in 1952 and brought up in the immigrant development town of Sderot in southern Israel, Mr Peretz represents not just a new generation of Labour leader but also a quest to return the party to its social democratic roots.

His goal is to reverse the political upheaval of 1977 when Likud first came to power, an outcome that ended Labour's traditional dominance of the Israeli political system that had lasted since the creation of the state in 1948.

Labour had become the establishment party. Likud swept to power on a wave of support from poorer Sephardi voters, Jews who originally came from Arab countries.

As a Sephardi himself, Mr Peretz wants to reverse this trend. He wants to rebuild Labour into a party of social concern to appeal to the young and new immigrants. And he believes that his own background could enable Labour to make significant inroads into the Sephardi ranks of traditional Likud voters.

Mr Peretz's pitch is ideological revival, and to this extent he appeals to those who want to see a younger, more dynamic Labour Party.

But earlier efforts to pass the torch to a new generation of Labour leaders have largely failed at the ballot box. This domestic focus is all very well, but the dovish Mr Peretz is untested in foreign policy matters.

Labour's upheaval comes at a time when Ariel Sharon's Likud Party is bitterly divided. If Labour opts to leave the government as Mr Peretz wants - possibly precipitating new elections - Israeli politics could be in for some very uncertain times.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/4425260.stm

Published: 2005/11/10 15:29:34 GMT

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