A leadership election was held by the

Israeli Labor Party The Israeli Labor Party ( he, מִפְלֶגֶת הָעֲבוֹדָה הַיִּשְׂרְאֵלִית, ), commonly known as HaAvoda ( he, הָעֲבוֹדָה, , The Labor), is a social democratic and Zionist political party in Israel. The p ...

on 12 June 2007, to elect the party's new leader, due to internal dissatisfaction with the incumbent chairman

Amir Peretz Amir Peretz ( he, עָמִיר פֶּרֶץ; born on 9 March 1952) is an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the Labor Party. A Knesset member almost continuously from 1988 to 2021, he has served as Minister of Defen ...

. The winner was Ehud Barak.

History

Five candidates ran in the election: Ehud Barak attempted to return to politics, this time after the move of Shimon Peres to

Kadima Kadima ( he, קדימה, lit=''Forward'') was a centrist and liberal political party in Israel. It was established on 24 November 2005 by moderates from Likud largely following the implementation of Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement pl ...

, while

Ami Ayalon Ami Ayalon ( he, עמיחי "עמי" איילון, born 27 June 1945) is an Israeli politician and a former member of the Knesset for the Labor Party. He was previously head of the Shin Bet, Israel's secret service, and commander-in-chief of th ...

announced his ambition to become

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

. Ofir Pines-Paz had been chairman of the coalition in the Fifteenth Knesset. He was the party's secretary-general in 2001-2003. In the 2006 election he was third in the Labor-Meimad list, after Peretz and

Isaac Herzog Isaac "Bougie" Herzog ( he, יצחק "בוז׳י" הרצוג, Yitskhak "Buzhi" Hertsog; born 22 September 1960) is an Israeli politician who has been serving as the 11th president of Israel since 2021. He is the first president to be born in ...

. When

Yisrael Beiteinu Yisrael Beiteinu ( he, יִשְׂרָאֵל בֵּיתֵנוּ, russian: Наш Дом Израиль, lit. ''Israel Our Home'') is a secularist, nationalist right-wing political party in Israel. The party's base was originally secular Russia ...

joined the coalition and

Avigdor Lieberman Avigdor Lieberman (, ; russian: Эве́т Льво́вич Ли́берман, Evet Lvovich Liberman, ; born 5 June 1958) is a Soviet-born Israeli politician serving as Minister of Finance since 2021, having previously served twice as Deputy ...

was appointed minister, Pines-Paz resigned from the government. His resignation took effect on 1 November 2006.

Danny Yatom Danny Yatom ( he, דני יתום, born 15 March 1945) is a former Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Labor. In 1996–1998, Yatom was head of the Mossad and between 1999 and 2001, he served as Prime Minister Ehud Barak ...

ran in the election but came last in the first round of voting. The election consisted of two rounds, the first of which took place on 28 May 2007. Ehud Barak won a slim victory in the party primary, beating Ayalon, former head of the Shin Bet domestic security service. Both candidates polled well ahead of Peretz, but neither gained the requisite 40-percent margin of victory for an outright win. Peretz, then the Incumbent leader of the party, came third and did not advance to the second round. he subsequently endorsed Ayalon, while Pines-Paz endorsed Barak. Barak won the second round with 51.3% of the vote to Ayalon's 47.7%, with 1% of voters abstaining.

Opinion polls

First round

Second round

Results

In the first round, Ayalon won a plurality of votes in the

Kibbutzim A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming ha ...

, while Peretz won a plurality of Arab Voters.

References

{{reflist

External links

Labor Party Primary Election (Israel Democracy Institute)
Labor Party leadership election Israeli Labor Party leadership elections Israeli Labor Party leadership election Israeli Labor Party leadership election