 Israeli elder statesman Shimon Peres may leave the Labour Party that ousted him as its leader and join Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new centrist list, a spokesman for Peres says.
| I'm not sure I'd want him if I was Sharon. Peres is a warm milk kind of guy, in a region where the warm milk curdled long ago. |
The defection of Peres, 82, would represent a vote of confidence by the Nobel peace laureate in Sharon's oft-repeated pledge to make "painful concessions" for peace with the Palestinians. Branded a "loser" by political satirists for repeated defeats in national elections, Peres may nonetheless be a vote-getter for Sharon by attracting some of Labour's liberal electorate in Israel's 28 March ballot.
| I'd guess he's overrated as a vote getter, too... |
Israeli media reports said Sharon had offered Peres the job of peace envoy if the prime minister's new Kadima party wins the general election, Israeli media reports said. "They very much want him," Yoram Dori, a spokesman for Peres, said about officials in Kadima. |