Labor Party

TEL AVIV, Israel - Shimon Peres, leader of Israel's opposition Labor Party, laid out for the first time Friday conditions under which his party would join the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. In an interview with The New York Times, he said that Israel's evacuation of the Gaza Strip must be negotiated with the Palestinians, the timetable for the move decided now, and the future of the West Bank worked out now as well. Sharon's plan has not involved those steps. "We do not support the plan that exists, and we will try to introduce those three conditions," Peres said in an hourlong interview in his Tel Aviv office.

LONDON -- Boris Johnson, the floppy-haired media celebrity and Conservative member of Parliament who transformed himself from a shambling, amusing-aphorism-uttering figure of fun into a plausible political force, was elected mayor of London yesterday. Johnson's surprising victory was not only a triumph of his own singular style, but also a resounding public rebuke to the Labor government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown in a day full of such rebukes. As votes were tallied across the country after Thursday's elections, it emerged that the Labor Party had suffered its worst local election results in at least 40 years.

JERUSALEM -- Ehud Barak, the former Israeli prime minister ousted by voters six years ago, recaptured leadership of the Labor Party yesterday. Barak's victory, by a margin of 53 percent to 47 percent over lawmaker Ami Ayalon in a party runoff, represents a remarkable political rebirth for the ambitious and strong-willed leader who lost in 2001 to the hawkish Ariel Sharon. "Today begins the journey toward restoration," Barak told supporters early today during a brief victory speech at party headquarters in Tel Aviv.

TEL AVIV, Israel - Amram Mitzna, a retired Israeli general and candidate to lead the left-of-center Labor Party, stands calmly in the small crowd in Rabin Square, talking with supporters and fending off taunts as easily as if he were chatting about the weather. He keeps his voice steady, smiles when someone calls him a traitor and, just in case someone in the back can't hear, repeats questions that assail his integrity. After nine years as mayor of Haifa, Mitzna is seeking to unseat Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer as head of Labor in party elections scheduled for November, and then to challenge the Likud government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

JERUSALEM - Israel's coalition government faces a parliamentary showdown today over one of the most contentious issues in Israeli politics - the government's financial support for Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Leaders of the left-of-center Labor Party are threatening to leave the government because of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's request for about $416 million to subsidize settlements. If Labor carries out its threat, it would destabilize Sharon's government and potentially delay any attempt to negotiate a peace settlement with the Palestinians.

JERUSALEM -- Four months after its defeat in national elections, Israel's Labor Party appears to be neither humbled nor healing itself.Indeed, its internal rifts widened last week when former Foreign Minister Ehud Barak announced that he will seek the party leadership in June and its nomination for prime minister in 2000, whether former Prime Minister Shimon Peres steps down or not.Peres, who has been hanging on as party chief despite his defeat by the...

LONDON -- This week, Tony Blair goes to America.The visit of the leader of Britain's opposition Labor Party would normally be something of a lap of honor, as he meets with business leaders and gets a White House greeting from President Clinton.Instead, Mr. Blair may find himself dealing with what appear to be flimsy allegations of "un-American activities."According to a report in yesterday's Sunday Express, the ruling Conservative Party has sent a pamphlet titled "Tony Blair's Un-American Activities" to Republican supporters in the United States.

LONDON -- Tony Benn is an ageless rebel with a bunch of causes.He's for union workers and seniors on pensions, environmentalists and free-speech campaigners.Let others stake out the political middle. Benn will gladly take the left wing.At 74, the old lion of Britain's Labor Party is enjoying a last lap in Britain's House of Commons, making speeches, challenging conventional wisdom and raising a democratic roar.He's leaving Parliament after the next election, declaring that significant change comes from outside the political establishment.

LONDON - Old Labor went to voters in coal mines and factories. New Labor heads to Bloomberg and Microsoft. Old Labor preached old-time socialism and created the welfare state. New Labor courts business and espouses public-private partnerships. Old Labor lost a lot more than it won. New Labor wins a lot more than it loses. The Labor Party that British Prime Minister Tony Blair inherited and then re-created is likely to retain power in Thursday's national election. Turnout may be down and public interest may be receding, but if the polls are right, Blair and what he calls his New Labor Party are bound for election glory to complete a political revolution.

LONDON - If the labor situation in the United Kingdom continues on its current thorn-covered path, here's how the country will function - or not: Fire engines will not run, airplanes will not fly and the mail will go undelivered. And that is the labor situation under a Labor Party government. Today, firefighters are into the second day of a two-day nationwide strike with another one - for eight days - scheduled to begin next week. That has left most urban areas relying on plodding 50-year-old fire engines, operated by military personnel, to respond to everything from industrial blazes to road accidents.