International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, Nov. 20, 2002

Haifa Mayor Amram Mitzna was elected leader of Israel’s Labor Party on Tuesday by a considerable margin, promising to take the party further to the left and "to create a new reality for Israel," by pursuing "the vision of making peace in the Middle East."

His victory over the incumbent leader and former Defense Minister in Ariel Sharon’s "Unity Government," Binyamin Ben-Eliezer was welcomed by Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat, who told reporters on Wednesday that he was sure Mitzna would follow in the footsteps of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and complete the tattered Oslo peace process, discredited in the eyes of many Israelis after two years of armed Palestinian intifada.

But while the victory of the dovish Mitzna signals a clear mood among the record 65,000 Labor members who turned out to vote, it does not reflect that of the country at large, expected to hand Ariel Sharon’s Likud a convincing victory in January’s national elections. Mitzna’s policy platform of unilateral withdrawal from the Palestinian territories with or without a cessation of terror, is unlikely to persuade an Israeli electorate frustrated by the ongoing war of attrition with Palestinian terror.

After the election, Mitzna told the AP news agency that if elected prime minister, he would order an evacuation of Jewish settlers and Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip. By contrast, Sharon has maintained that he will not consider any such move "under fire," nor will he negotiate with Arafat, whom he believes is irredeemably tainted by both corruption and terror.

While Mitzna’s chances are considered small in the national race, Sharon’s attempts to form another broad-based "unity government" after the January elections are now all but ended, if, as polls suggest, he squeezes past close rival Binyamin Netanyahu in the Likud primary scheduled for next week.

Mitzna says that he would not allow Labor to join a Likud-led coalition unless the government were to adopt his negotiating stance with regard to the Palestinians, an eventuality that no-one can forsee.

"I have been elected by a majority of members of the Labor Party to lead the Labor Party at such a difficult hour for Israeli society, and this is what I shall do," Mitzna told reporters at his headquarters in Haifa.

"I hope we are beginning a new partnership in the party," Mitzna said, "Labor members said with a clear voice that Labor must present an alternative to the Likud and that alternative begins now."