JERUSALEM - Israel's beleaguered Labor Party chose as its new leader last night Amram Mitzna, a retired army general who has pledged to restart peace negotiations with the Palestinians and dismantle Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
He will be the party's candidate for prime minister in elections scheduled for Jan. 28.
Mitzna, the 57-year-old mayor of Haifa, was selected by party members over two other candidates, current party chairman and former Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and parliament member Haim Ramon. Exit polls showed Mitzna with 57 percent of the vote, with Ben-Eliezer in second with about 35 percent. Late last night, Ben-Eliezer conceded to Mitzna.
National polls, however, show Labor as having little chance of winning enough seats in parliament to unseat the right-wing Likud, headed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Likud members will decide next week whether Sharon or Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be the party's candidate for prime minister.
Israel's electorate has shifted sharply to the right during the past two years, and talk of reconciliation and compromise as promoted by Mitzna is often drowned out by reports of clashes with Palestinians, and daily reports of casualties.
That did not prevent Mitzna from proposing controversial actions. Speaking shortly before Labor Party members were to vote, he told reporters that "as prime minister, I'll immediately evacuate the Gaza settlements" where 6,500 Israelis live in heavily guarded enclaves amid 1.2 million Palestinians.
Mitzna then said he would immediately reopen negotiations with the Palestinians and, if the talks fail, unilaterally withdraw from most of the West Bank and establish a firm separation border. He also said he would transfer most of East Jerusalem to Palestinian rule.
"The alternative that I offer is a secure future," he said.
Ben-Eliezer, the defense minister, led Labor out of the Sharon's coalition government two weeks ago in a dispute over government financing for Jewish settlements. Unable to cobble together a new coalition, Sharon was forced to call for new elections nine months early.
While a broad spectrum of Israelis supported a coalition government that included both Likud and Labor, the awkward marriage was not supported by parts of Labor. In his campaign to remain leader of the Labor party, Ben-Eliezer found it difficult to criticize a government of which he had been a key member.
Mitzna has said his party's 19-month partnership with the Likud made Labor virtually inseparable from Israel's right and its military approach to resolving the Palestinian conflict. There is now little chance that Labor and Likud's views will blur. As a result, Labor will go from being a part of a government many faction members despised to a true opposition party able to fight for its own beliefs without compromise.
Mitzna advocated solving the Palestinian conflict by both negotiating with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and using military force to quash militant groups.
As a decorated army general who commanded Israeli forces in the West Bank during the first Palestinian uprising, in the late 1980s, Mitzna was known as a tough-minded officer who also drew the ire of Jewish settlers, after his criticism of them for carrying out vigilante justice.
He retired from the army in 1993 and became mayor of Haifa, a northern port city of Israelis and Arabs. Two years ago, as riots by Israeli-Arabs spread through many cities, Mitzna stood between protesters and police and spared the city a violent eruption.
Though Mitzna was considered the most charismatic of the three candidates, none was warmly embraced by the country. Campaign stops were few, and the three debated only once on national television. Commentators branded all three as losers.
Israel's primary system is more about signing up new party members then stumping for votes in whirlwind tours of cities and towns. A candidate's ability to mobilize an electorate and get people to the voting booths is every bit as crucial as forming a popular platform. More than half of Labor's registered members were signed up in the past several weeks.