Israeli Labor Leader Ousted

It was a fitting end to the career of Amir Peretz, the Israeli Labor leader and much reviled Defense Minister. Peretz fell into disgrace for his mishandling of last summer's Lebanon war and was challenged for the leadership post inside his party. As Peretz went to cast a vote for himself in party elections on Monday at his hometown of Sderot, near the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, a dozen missiles from Palestinian militants thudded down.

Nobody was hurt, but it was an embarrassing reminder to Labor party members that Peretz –-one of the rare defense ministers in recent years who wasn't a general—couldn't defend his own town let alone the Israeli nation. During Tuesday's tally, Peretz polled a distant third, behind front-runner and former Prime Minister Ehud Barak (35.6%) and a former domestic intelligence chief Ami Ayalon (30.6). To win, a candidate needs 40% of the vote, so rivals Barak and Ayalon will face off in the second round, on June 12th.

Peretz's political career flat-lined after he was photographed looking at a military display with binoculars whose lense caps were still on.The ridicule never died down among Israelis. This is why we didn't win the war against Hizballah, Israelis exclaimed, as Peretz's popularity fell into the arctic, sub-zero range and was deemed irretrevable. After the Lebanon fracas, the rating of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert wasn't much better, at only three percent. Peretz has one small consolation: Barak and Ayalon, even after the rude things they said about him, must now try to court his backing for election victory.
by Tim McGirk/Jerusalem