Aide: Peres may join Sharon party

[IndianaGreen]

And the political realignment goes on in Israel, a country that most definitely does not believe in a 2-party system!

ABB = Anybody But Bibi

Aide: Peres may join Sharon party

Monday 28 November 2005, 23:17 Makka Time, 20:17 GMT

Israeli elder statesman Shimon Peres may leave the Labour Party that ousted him as its leader and join Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new centrist list, a spokesman for Peres says.

The defection of Peres, 82, would represent a vote of confidence by the Nobel peace laureate in Sharon's oft-repeated pledge to make "painful concessions" for peace with the Palestinians.

Branded a "loser" by political satirists for repeated defeats in national elections, Peres may nonetheless be a vote-getter for Sharon by attracting some of Labour's liberal electorate in Israel's 28 March ballot.

Israeli media reports said Sharon had offered Peres the job of peace envoy if the prime minister's new Kadima party wins the general election, Israeli media reports said.

"They very much want him," Yoram Dori, a spokesman for Peres, said about officials in Kadima.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A618FDF7-9B27-4F3C-9FF1-2D7D32F72E31.htm

[tx_dem41]

1. Wow...simply ...wow. n/t

[0rganism]

2. Amazing how Sharon has turned on this issue

He was expected to be a hard-liner by a lot of the settlers, and to some extent he has been -- except he's drawing the hard line a lot closer to the Israeli settlements than his supporters expected...

[IndianaGreen]

3. An analogy to American politics would be

if the secular Republicans break away from the GOP and then ask the conservative Democrats, i.e., the Al From fan club, to join them in forming a new secular centrist party.

[Thom Little]

4. Peres will leave Labor, join Sharon government

Shimon Peres has decided to leave the Labor Party and join Ariel
Sharon's next government, a senior Sharon adviser said Tuesday.

The adviser, Lior Horev, said Peres will not join Sharon's new party, Kadima, but would announce at a Wednesday news conference that he would join a future government led by Sharon's Kadima party, which is seen likely to name Peres a minister dealing with development of the Negav and the Galilee.

Sharon is also believed to have promised Peres that in the context of his membership in the cabinet, he would serve as a senior envoy overseeing diplomatic contacts with the Palestinians and other Arab parties.

"He will leave the Labor Party ... and will join the Sharon government and deal with the (development of) Galilee and the Negev," Horev said.



http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/651436.html