After seven MKs broke away from Kadima to join Tzipi Livni’s Movement Party, along with other members of the party who left to move to Likud and elsewhere, ailing Kadima continues to crumble.

After a 20-year political career Dalia Itzik has decided to call it quits, at least for the time being, perhaps to spare herself the embarrassment of Kadima not passing the minimum threshold. After it became apparent that Ehud Olmert is not making a return, Itzik, who was close to the former prime minister, feels she cannot have any influence considering today’s political realities.

“I am taking a break from political life. I am not leaving” she made a point of telling reporters.

Itzik was elected to Knesset in 1992 as a member of Labor. She has since served as minister of environmental affairs, minister of industry & trade and minister of communications. In 2005 she moved to Kadima and became the first woman to be appointed a Knesset speaker.

Joining Itzik is MK Ronnie Bar-On, who chairs the Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee. He too informed party leader Shaul Mofaz of his decision, explaining he feels it is time to retire from politics. Like Itzik, he came from the ranks of Labor, and he too held cabinet posts, including minister of science, national infrastructure and finance.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)