Jerusalem ? Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak won the primary for head of Israel’s dovish Labor Party, officials said early today, in a race between two ex-military officers who had both called on Israel’s current leader to resign.

Party director-general Eitan Cabel announced that Barak defeated former navy commander Ami Ayalon, a relative political newcomer.

At a victory gathering at party headquarters in Tel Aviv, Barak called for party unity and pledged to restore Israel’s military might and its power of deterrence.

Barak offered a policy that “combines uncompromising security, protecting Israel’s solidarity and democracy, determined pursuit of real peace, reinforcement of the rule of law and healing Israeli society.”

Barak is expected to replace deposed party leader Amir Peretz as defense minister in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Cabinet. Despite his call for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to resign over last summer’s inconclusive war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Barak was not expected to pull his party out of the coalition right away.

Peretz, too, was widely criticized for mishandling last summer’s war, and leaves the job highly unpopular among Israeli voters. He was eliminated in a first round of voting two weeks ago.

Labor has only 19 seats in Israel’s 120-seat legislature. The party led Israeli governments for the first three decades of its existence, from 1948-1977.

Barak, a former army chief, served as prime minister from 1999 until he was crushed by hard-liner Ariel Sharon in a 2001 election. Barak, 65, disappeared from politics after his political drubbing, amid new violence with the Palestinians and his failure to secure a final peace deal.

Since then, Barak has reportedly earned millions advising businesses and lecturing in the United States while setting the stage for a political comeback.