SELLING BUTTER WHEN THEY WANT GUNS:

Watching Peretz fall (Anshel Pfeffer, 9/02/06, THE JERUSALEM POST)

"No one is drawing a knife right now," said one of the Labor MKs who took part in Friday's faction meeting. "We're just waiting to see how the event will turn out."

What he actually meant is that they are all waiting to see how Amir Peretz will fall. Consensus now among almost all Labor leaders is that the party chairman has effectively painted himself into a corner. Those interested in challenging his leadership - about half the faction, if not more - would do better staying their hand and watching how Peretz digs himself in even deeper.

Prospective opponents Avishay Braverman and Ophir Paz-Pines could allow themselves at the meeting to congratulate Peretz on his decision to back a state commission of inquiry into the war. He had already caused himself enough damage over the issue, and another possible rival, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, rightly accused him of "zigzagging." Peretz just can't win. If he had persevered in his opposition to a state commission, he would have been charged with trying to evade his share of responsibility for the war's mismanagement. By giving in and changing his mind, he has shown how weak he currently is within the party, with most of his former allies and supporters now waiting on the sidelines.

And it's not only the commission on which Peretz seems to have no decent option. The next political battle, the 2007 state budget, which ostensibly was the main item on the meeting's agenda, is another trap for him. As defense minister, he has to stick by the IDF's demand for a massive increase in its budget. As a leader with a social agenda, he has to oppose additional defense spending and fight for money to combat poverty.