January 27, 2003

Mitzna confident of victory - next time

By Gil Hoffman

Labor Party chairman Amram Mitzna expressed newfound confidence on Sunday that he will still lead the Labor Party to victory not in Tuesday's election, but eventually.

Mitzna toured southern development towns accompanied by prospective Labor chairmanship challenger Binyamin Ben-Eliezer in a show of party unity that culminated with a campaign rally in Beersheba with the top echelon of the party leadership.

"We will replace the Likud government, or we will continue to fight until we win," Mitzna told the crowd. "If it will not be tomorrow, it will be the next day."

Mitzna conceded victory in Tuesday's race more explicitly in a radio commercial Sunday morning. "I intend to continue fighting until I win," Mitzna said, confessing that "the victory may not come two days from now, but I will still keep fighting until victory arrives."

The commercial was intended to send a message not only to prospective voters, but to the party membership that he does not intend to give up the leadership without a fight. Labor's central committee is expected to meet next week to decide whether to back up Mitzna's pledge not to enter a Likud-led national-unity government.

Mitzna appealed to Labor voters in election commercials to return home to the party to prevent the Likud from obtaining so much power in the Knesset that the opposition would be too weak to offer an alternative.

"Come home, so we wont wake up on Wednesday and find we lost a chance to return the country to its sanity," he said.

He was uplifted by a prediction from Likud strategist Arthur Finkelstein that Labor's fall would end up being less drastic than polls have said, predicting 21 mandates for Labor, two more than polls currently foresee.

In an effort to gain last-minute support, top Labor MKs will man a call center at Labor headquarters on Monday to speak personally to undecided voters.

A phone recording of Mitzna will also call thousands of voters and ask for their support.

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