A former prime minister and a political newcomer who both pledge to bring down Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government will face each other in a runoff after an inconclusive vote for leadership of Israel's Labor Party, final results yesterday showed.
Former prime minister Ehud Barak edged out Ami Ayalon 36 percent to 31 percent in Monday's voting. While the victory marked an important milestone in Barak's political comeback, he fell short of the 40 percent threshold needed for an outright victory, setting the stage for a June 12 runoff against Ayalon.
About 65 percent of 104,000 eligible voters participated in the primary. The current Labor leader, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, finished third with 22 percent, while two other candidates lagged far behind with single-digit support.
Labor has served as the junior partner in Olmert's year-old government. The next Labor leader is expected to shake up that alliance.
Both Barak and Ayalon have called for Olmert's resignation in the wake of a highly critical government report on his performance during last summer's war in Lebanon. It's unclear, however, how quickly they would work for his ouster.
Barak, 65, has said he would serve temporarily in an Olmert government, while also pushing for early elections. Olmert was elected last year to what is supposed to be a four-year term.
Ayalon, 61, has promised to lead the centrist Labor out of its partnership with Olmert if the prime minister's Kadima Party doesn't choose a new leader.
Both Ayalon and Barak could face a tough time leading their party out of the government. Many senior Labor officials favor staying in the government -- wanting to hold on to power and fearful that the party could lose in a new vote.
Opinion polls forecast the hard-line Likud Party, led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, would win a new election.
For Barak, Monday's primary win was an important step in his political comeback.
Barak spent nearly six years in political exile after he was crushed by Ariel Sharon in a 2001 election, following a short and stormy premiership that collapsed after failed efforts at making peace with Syria and the Palestinians.
In terms of policies, there appear to be few differences between Barak and Ayalon. Both favor sweeping territorial concessions under a final peace deal with the Palestinians. Instead, their differences have been more in style.
During the campaign, Barak stressed his experience and said he has learned from his mistakes.
``I tell voters only two things: I tell them to think about who they want more in a time of war, and I tell them that only with me heading our team can we beat Netanyahu,'' he said on Monday.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS