MIDDLE EAST: he veteran Israeli politician Shimon Peres appeared last night to be on the verge of defecting from the Labor Party, his political home for 60 years, to join forces with prime minister Ariel Sharon.
The departure of Mr Peres (83) from Labor four months ahead of general elections would be a great boost to Mr Sharon (77), who is aggressively marshalling support for the new Kadima party he founded last week after audaciously quitting his rebellious Likud Party.
A senior adviser to the prime minister said yesterday that Mr Peres had decided to join a future government led by Mr Sharon's party, which recent opinion polls show would comfortably beat Likud and Labor in next March's ballot.
Mr Lior Horev said Mr Peres would not join Kadima, but would be included in any future government led by Mr Sharon, tasked with special responsibility for developing two outlying regions of Israel, the Galilee and the Negev.
Mr Sharon may also offer Peres a future position as effective "special ambassador for peace affairs" in future negotiations with the Arabs, according to local reports.
Mr Peres, a two-time prime minister and Nobel peace laureate, is widely regarded internationally but has had little domestic electoral success, failing to win power in five elections as Labor leader.
However, the departure of such a senior and internationally respected figure from Labor would certainly sap public confidence in the party and its new leader, the trade unionist Amir Peretz. It is also likely to unleash a torrent of accusations that Mr Peres has put selfish interests ahead of his life-long political commitment to Labor.
Yoram Dori, a spokesman for Mr Peres, said the elder statesman may quit Labor but would not announce a decision before his planned return today from Barcelona, where he has co-sponsored an IsraeliPalestinian soccer match.
"I have to reach a complete decision, and I am considering all the aspects I can. . . I expect that within the next two days I will end my deliberations and make an announcement," Mr Peres told Israeli army radio yesterday from Barcelona.
Mr Peres spoke in praise of Mr Sharon, but had no warm words for his successor who had entreated him to stay with Labor, but had not publicly offered him any significant role in the party after the elections.
"The real change is not in the Labor Party. The real change is in the Likud Party. Mr Sharon took a different direction for a Palestinian state. He wants to continue the peace process," Mr Peres said.
Speculation that Mr Peres would join forces with Mr Sharon intensified on Monday after a Peres protege, Dalia Itzik, left Labor to join the Kadima party.
Mr Sharon has attempted to position his new party as centrist after leaving right-wing Likud, where he faced a revolt from deputies who opposed his unilateral withdrawal from Gaza.
He has been courting support from a peculiar alliance ranging from Israeli Arab leaders to a former security chief who expanded a controversial policy of "targeted assassinations" of Palestinian militant leaders.