Labour and Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog has won himself at least temporary reprieve from the challenges to his leadership.

Delegates at Labour's conference this weekend unanimously endorsed his new diplomatic manifesto, despite the furore in the party over his recent statement distancing himself from the two-state solution and a long list of rivals preparing to run for his job.

Mr Herzog originally presented his new policy, based on separating Israeli and Palestinian populations, at the Institute for National Security Studies' annual gathering last month. He also discussed it with foreign leaders including French President François Hollande and US State Secretary John Kerry. This angered his party colleagues, who claimed that they should have heard of it first. The same party members criticised him for saying that the two-state solution was not currently relevant.

On Sunday, after prolonged wrangling over the wording, the conference adopted Mr Herzog's revised version of the party's diplomatic manifesto, which had remained unchanged since 2002.

According to the new document, Israel "must correspond with the reality that a full peace agreement, to our regret, is not around the corner and at this stage, the vision of two states is not attainable. We must act in every possible way to safeguard the vision of the two states while separating from the Palestinians until it is realised."

The new manifesto was approved by the conference unanimously. However, few could miss the absence of former leader, Shelly Yachimovich, or that of Amir Peretz, another previous leader, who returned to the party officially this week. Ms Yachimovich and Mr Peretz are expected to mount a joint challenge to Mr Herzog, with one of them running for the leadership and the other for the head of the Histadrut trade union. Conference delegates agreed to postpone the decision on a date for the leadership election until May, another small achievement for Mr Herzog, who is hoping that they will not take place before late 2017.

Meanwhile, however, the list of potential challengers is growing. In addition to Ms Yachimovich and Mr Peretz, Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai is still considering a run, as is former IDF chief Gabi Ashkenazi.