Tempers are flaring in the Labor Party after the news reports of the clandestine meeting of the party rebels this week while party leader Ehud Barak is visiting in Washington. The reports confirmed that MK Daniel Ben-Simon joined them, and if he agrees to support their break from the party, he will give the rebel faction the necessary numbers to make the break and launch a new party. As was reported by YWN-Israel earlier this week, Ben-Simon is opposed to party leader Barak, but appears uncertain as to the timing for such a move.

According to a report appearing in the daily Maariv, former senior Labor official Chaim Ramon, who defected to Kadima prior to leaving politics, met in coffee shops with some of the rebel faction members, adding former Labor Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik is involved. She too moved from Labor to Kadima. Ramon confirmed meeting with the rebel members, and a senior Kadima official quoted anonymously added party leader  Tzipi Livni also met with them, apparently trying to persuade the defectors to follow Ramon and Itzik’s lead and to join Kadima rather than launching a new party.

Livni supporters explain that the last election was clear, that Livni has pulled the Meretz and old Labor vote, insisting she now represents the Labor values that existed prior to Barak’s tenure, seeking to persuade the rebels that Kadima is their natural home.

The rebel faction includes MKs Eitan Cabel, Amir Peretz, Ofir Pines and Prof. Yuli Tamir.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)