Yachimovich calls Labor candidates 'a dream list'

Isaac Herzog tops the primaries rankings, followed by former party leader Amir Peretz.

Twelve hours after the voting booths closed in its primary election, the Labor Party announced its list of candidates for the Knesset election on January 22. First place went to Isaac Herzog. He was followed by former party leader Amir Peretz, Eitan Cabel, and Merav Michaeli, a journalist whom party leader Shelly Yachimovich (herself a former journalist) did not want to see on the list. The other three of the top four names are experienced politicians, as is number five, Binyamin (Fouad) Ben-Eliezer.

In sixth place, reserved for the secretary-general of the party, is Hilik Bar.

After him come former Sayeret Matkal commander Omer Bar-Lev, Stav Shaffir, one of the leaders of the social protest movement that took to Israel's streets in the summer of 2011, Prof. Avishai Braverman, venture capitalist Erel Margalit, student leader Itzik Shmuli, Miki Rosenthal, another journalist, Michal Biran, a former aide to Yachimovich, Nachman Shai, who in the current Knesset is a member of the Kadima faction, former head of the police investigations branch Moshe Mizrahi, Danni Atar, head of the Gilboa Regional Council, Nadia Hilou, the second Arab woman member in the history of the Knesset, Nino Abesadze, another Kadima MK, Prof. Yossi Yona, who is also associated with the social protest movement, Daniel Ben Simon, a sitting Labor MK who is yet another former journalist, Ofer Kornfeld, who stands for religious pluralism, and Hili Tropper and Yona Prital, both educationalists.

Of the first 22 candidates in Labor's list, including party leader Yachimovich, seven are women. Polls currently show Labor winning 18-20 seats in the forthcoming election.

Speaking after the primary results were announced, Yachimovich said it was a list such as she could not even have dreamed of, and attacked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the diplomatic setback in the UN yesterday, when the Palestinian Authority was awarded non-member state observer status at the organization, and over the poverty figures released yesterday showing more of the working population falling below the poverty line.

In a statement, Netanyahu's Likud party described the Labor list as extreme left-wing.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 30, 2012

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2012

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