fbpx

Israel’s Labor Leader Exits Politics

In a first since its inception in the 1960s, Labor is not expected to secure the four Knesset seats required to pass the electoral threshold.
[additional-authors]
December 24, 2020
Labor Party leader Amir Peretz at an election event in Tel Aviv on Dec. 31, 2019. Photo by Tomer Neuberg/Flash90.

 JNS – Israeli Labor Party leader Amir Peretz announced on Wednesday that he would be stepping down as party chairman after overseeing the political faction’s worst-ever performance in the last election.

Opinion polls show that Peretz, who currently serves as the country’s economy minister, as having lost the support of many Labor Party voters after breaking his campaign promise not to join a government led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a first since its inception in the 1960s, Labor is not expected to secure the four Knesset seats required to pass the electoral threshold.

“Out of a sense of responsibility, I am announcing that in the upcoming elections, I won’t lead the Labor Party, and I won’t head the party in the Knesset,” Peretz wrote on Facebook. “At this time, the Labor Party needs renewal and must choose a new chairman and leadership.”

This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.

Did you enjoy this article?
You'll love our roundtable.

Editor's Picks

Latest Articles

Outrage Is a Test

Are we moved to protect girls, or by the ease of condemning the correct villain?

Who Cares About How Jews Look?

Even if we really are victims, it doesn’t help us to come across as victims. The minute we do that, we look like losers, we make things worse, and the haters win.

A Jewish Goal Line Stand

Is this TV commercial, righteous, sentimental and well-intentioned though it might be, the right remedy for these times? Will it make a difference for the 66 percent of Jewish teenagers who claim to have been bullied by Jew-hating juveniles?

What Does Faith Have to Do with Ethics?

One by one, the Ten Commandments teach us how we bring God into our daily lives. Each additional commandment encourages us to climb further up the ladder of faith.

Craving Kitsch

Everywhere I turned was another kiosk selling either sticky sweet things or tourist trinkets. I was in tacky heaven and, somehow, it felt great.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.