ISRAEL/FILE: Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz is considering resigning over criticism of the government's handling of last year's war in Lebanon

Record ID: 401348

  • Title: ISRAEL/FILE: Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz is considering resigning over criticism of the government's handling of last year's war in Lebanon
  • Date: 2nd May 2007
  • Summary: (BN09) TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (MAY 1, 2007) (REUTERS) CLOSE-UP OF NEWSPAPER HEADLINE SHOWING PICTURES OF PERETZ AND OLMERT, HEADLINE READING "GO HOME"
  • Embargoed: 17th May 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAOKOAPY5WNYD9FYM0WZ2M3L1N
  • Story Text: Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz is considering stepping down as early as Wednesday (May 2) over sharp criticism of the government's handling of last year's war in Lebanon, Israel Radio and Army Radio reported.
    They quoted aides close to Peretz as saying he was considering resigning and could do so "within hours".
    In addition to Peretz, the government-appointed panel that investigated the Lebanon war criticised Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, as well as the army chief of staff at the time, Dan Halutz.
    Olmert has so far refused to step down. Halutz resigned earlier this year.
    A former trade union leader with no top-level military experience, Peretz was an unlikely choice to become Israel's defence minister and help lead it into last year's war with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon .
    The conflict ended in an indecisive ceasefire after Hezbollah fired about 4,000 rockets into Israel and Peretz's approval ratings dropped to single digits, as did those of Olmert.
    Few in Israel questioned Peretz's political prowess or remarkable rise from the town of Sderot on the Gaza border to unseat elder statesman Shimon Peres as Labour Party leader.
    "I am a man of peace," Peretz often said in public speeches, calling for dialogue with the Palestinians and Israel's Arab neighbours.
    His political horizon was clouded by an uneasy relationship with Olmert, head of the centrist Kadima party, and the Lebanon war that effectively made both men hostage to the findings of a government-appointed inquiry into the conflict.
    The embattled defence minister seemed to be unable to win much respect on the domestic front.
    He was mocked mercilessly on the main television satire show, where Peretz, sporting a trademark moustache that Russian immigrants to Israel often described as "Stalinist", would shout through a megaphone, a throwback to his union days.
    Israelis chuckled when newspapers printed photos last February showing Peretz watching military manoeuvres with the lens cap still on his binoculars.
    Olmert has made it clear he appointed Peretz defence minister only at Labour's insistence, as part of a coalition agreement. Peretz faces a battle to retain Labour's leadership in an internal election next month.
    Born in Morocco in 1952, he moved to Israel with his family in 1956 and settled in Sderot. Badly wounded as a young parachute brigade officer, he went into farming and then local Labour politics as mayor of Sderot.
    He was elected to parliament in 1988 and became chairman of Israel's powerful trade union federation in 1995.
    His victory over Peres for the Labour leadership in 2005 was seen as a breakthrough for the Sephardim -- Jews from North Africa and the Middle East -- over an Israeli elite dominated by Ashkenazi Jews from Europe.
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