Mitzna win splits Israeli press

Mitzna (right) got more than half of Labour votes

Israeli papers have given a mixed response to the election of the mayor of Haifa, Amram Mitzna, as leader of Israel's opposition Labour Party.

The right-of-centre daily Jerusalem Post is far from jubilant.

"His prospects are not promising," it states.

The daily goes on to say that from the opposition, he can do "little more than shout" when the government makes decisions with which he disagrees.

By voting for Mr Mitzna and rejecting former Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, the paper says, Labour members have "apparently condemned their party to four years of watching from the opposition".

Overnight the Labour Party has become an alternative.

Yediot Aharonot

Mr Ben-Eliezer came second with 37% of the votes to Mr Mitzna's 54%. Haim Ramon, a moderate ex-cabinet minister, was third on 7%.

The independent, centrist mass-circulation daily Yediot Aharonot is more positive. It believes that "overnight the Labour Party has become an alternative", which, according to the paper, goes to the new party chairman's credit.

The independent Ma'ariv makes a similar point, saying that "the Labour Party yesterday went through a dramatic internal turnabout".

Who is he?

Ma'ariv describes Mr Mitzna as "a new, unknown leader lacking experience at the national level". On the positive side, the daily says that he "clearly and courageously holds the views of the radical camp in the party".

The Jerusalem Post says that he has won "largely because he was perceived (correctly) as the most dovish" of the three candidates.

Mitzna is hardly the first prominent 'bleeding heart' in local politics with blood on his hands.

Jerusalem Post

Mr Mitzna advocates a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the establishment of a Palestinian state.

The paper also recalls that he was a reservist general when then-Defence Minister Yitzhak Rabin is said to have declared that the Israeli Defence Forces would "break the bones" of rioting Palestinians. It adds that some of the soldiers under his command "sometimes did just that".

"Mitzna is hardly the first prominent 'bleeding heart' in local politics with blood on his hands," the paper adds.

However, it points out, he represents "the last of the die-hard Oslo faithful" who still believe it is possible to negotiate a final-status agreement with the current Palestinian leadership headed by Yasser Arafat.

The tasks ahead

"The Labour Party must now shake off the dust left on its body by the failures of the outgoing government," urges Ha'aretz.

It adds that after 20 months of "kow-towing to the Likud and its partners on the far right and the religious sector" the Labour Party now needs to "re-acquire voter trust".

With the general elections scheduled for 28 January, Ha'aretz says the Labour Party has "less than 70 days to shape its image and formulate its agenda".

Mr Mitzna says ready to talk with Mr Arafat

But the Jerusalem Post declares that "no one expects him to win that race, not even his supporters."

It argues that he was chosen to be the head of the opposition, not the prime minister.

Ha'aretz believes that for Labour to present "a genuine alternative to the Likud and centre" it must put peace-making back at the top of its agenda.

The rightist Hatzofe, affiliated with the National Religious Party, argues that the new party chairman is "a man striving for a difficult internal confrontation, even before he announced whether he would talk to the Palestinians".

The Jerusalem Post is still sceptical. It wonders whether Mr Mitzna will be able to "rebuild Labour into a viable contender for leadership, or simply lead the party further into the political wilderness".

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.