Скачать или смотреть Peres quits Labour Party to campaign for Sharon's new party

(1 Dec 2005) SHOTLIST
Tel Aviv - 30 November 2005
1. Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres enters room
2. Photographers
3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Shimon Peres, former Israeli Prime Minister:
"Today is a very difficult day for me. But I ask myself what is the main thing that faces Israel in the next four years. I have no doubt that this is the peace process. I ask myself how can I contribute in the coming years. My answer is by promoting the peace process which will bring economic prosperity and social justice to our land. I believe that in the current political structure advancing the peace process is possible only through a coalition of peace and development. And in my view the man best suited to head such a coalition based on proven results is Prime Minister Ariel Sharon."
Jerusalem - Recent
4. Israeli cabinet meeting, zoom into Peres sitting next to Ariel Sharon
Tel Aviv - 30 November 2005
5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Shimon Peres, former Israeli Prime Minister:
"I spoke with Mr Sharon and I am convinced that he is determined, as I am, to continue with the peace process immediately after the election. He is open to creative ideas and achieving peace and security as soon as possible. I decided therefore to support his election and to cooperate with him to realise those goals. It has not been an easy conclusion for me, but I found myself faced with a contradiction with a party of which I am a member and requirement of a political situation. Without ignoring the deep connections I have to the party and its members, its historic past and tradition, I must prefer a more urgent and greater consideration."
6. Peres leaving room
STORYLINE:
Veteran Israeli politician Shimon Peres announced on Wednesday he is leaving the Labour Party after six decades and throwing his support behind Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new centrist party.
Peres is a former prime minister who has held every major cabinet position.
He left Labour after his humiliating loss three weeks ago to union leader Amir Peretz in the race for Labour Party leader.
Peres said he was supporting Sharon as the person who had the best chance of restarting the peace process with the Palestinians.
The move caps dramatic realignments in Israeli politics over the past month, following the summer pullout from Gaza and part of the West Bank.
Peres said the current political setup could not lead to Middle East peace and a new team was needed.
Peres said it was hard to leave Labour, but he had to choose the good of the country over the party.
Sharon triggered the political earthquake when he abandoned decades of hawkish policy and undertook the pullout, destroying 25 Jewish settlements.
The party shake-up began in early November when populist union leader Amir Peretz ousted Peres as Labour Party leader.
Barely two weeks later, 77-year-old Sharon announced he was quitting the hardline Likud Party he helped found three decades ago and was forming the moderate Kadima Party.
Peres' defection was a coup for Sharon as the major political factions scramble to snare high-profile supporters ahead of the parliamentary elections in March.
Many Israelis respect Peres for his decades of service to the country, but some view him warily as a dove and a political opportunist.

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