What will be the upshot of these primaries for Efraim Sneh?
- The loss of his chances to fit into Labour’s top brass.
- The dulling of his shiny-bright pre-election image. Voters may hitherto have thought him an insufficiently attractive candidate, but were never asked to express their opinion in public. Faced with the question today, they are, I am sure, giving devastating answers.
53-year-old Sneh is an internist. This time, it seems, he should have sought a second opinion before diagnosing himself as being in fit condition to run for Labour leadership. As a physician, however, he can still succeed. I shouldn’t wonder if the results of this evening’s (Tuesday’s) primaries, leave him wishing he was in an operating theatre, where the patient’s bleeding is confined to the table he lies on, and does not, Heaven forbid, trickle down over the whole Middle East.