Likud candidate's election stuns Israel's Labor Party
Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Tuesday, August 1, 2000
JERUSALEM -- An underdog was chosen as Israel's new president in a
race that was regarded as another blow to the government of Prime Minister
Ehud Barak.
Shimon Peres, the man who twice served as prime minister but never won a
race for political office, lost in two rounds of voting in the parliament.
The Knesset on Monday chose Likud candidate Moshe Katsav in a 63-57 vote.
Katsav, a minister in several Israeli governments, pledged to work
toward uniting Israel. "We want to lead a more calm, quiet and united
country," he said. "I pledge to work in this spirit. I will be a sincere and
true representative of all of you."
The election of Katsav stunned the Labor Party and Israeli analysts,
both of whom were certain that Peres would win. Analysts said the election
was another blow to Barak, a backer of Peres and the Israeli-Palestinian
peace process.
"I see a dissatisfaction with Ehud Barak, a no-confidence," Likud
chairman Ariel Sharon said.
In the first round, Katsav won 60 votes to Peres's 57. A second round
was declared when neither candidate won a required 61 votes -- a majority of
the 120-member parliament.
Labor's Uzi Baram, who worked for Peres's campaign, said the vote
reflected the loss of support in Barak. "The results are more political than
personal and reflects the state of the government versus the opposition,"
Baram said. "I didn't think this would be the case."
Katsav, born in Iran and an observant Jew, campaigned for support from
religious and Sephardic parliamentarians in the Knesset. Sephardi Jews come
from the Middle East.
After he failed in the first round, Peres telephoned Rabbi Ovadia Yosef,
the spiritual leader of the Shas party, with 17 members in the Knesset. But
the rabbi was not available.
Earlier, a petition was filed in the High Court that accused Peres of
bribing a Likud parliamentarian to
support Peres in his unsuccessful 1990 bid to become prime minister.
For Peres, it was the latest in a string of defeats in his bid to be
elected public office. As head of the Labor Party, Peres lost elections in
1977, 1981, 1988 and 1996. In 1984, Peres failed to form a
parliamentary majority and agreed to rotate the prime ministry with
then-Likud candidate Yitzhak Shamir.
Peres succeeds Ezer Weizman, regarded as the most politically active
president in Israel's history. As president, Weizman often intervened in the
Middle East peace process and called for new elections for prime minister.
"What Weizman tried to do was become a back-seat driver and tried to run
the country without authority," said Shlomo Avineri, a professor at Hebrew
University.
Tuesday, August 1, 2000
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