Ex–Israeli PM eyes Labour Party leadership

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2007

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak has said he will contest the leadership of the Labor Party in May, in a bid to return to the national political stage after a five-year absence. "This morning Ehud Barak submitted his candidacy as Labor chairman in a letter" to the party's secretary general, a senior Barak aide told AFP.

The center-left Labor party is due to hold elections for a new chairman on May 28. Labor, a main partner of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's governing coalition, is currently headed by Defense Minister Amir Peretz, whose ratings have plunged after last year's inconclusive war on Lebanon's Hezbollah militia. Barak, 64, withdrew from politics after he was defeated in legislative elections by Ariel Sharon in 2001, following the collapse of...