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Political earthquake hits Israel as Ehud Barak bolts party

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Israel's Defense Minister and Labor Party Chairman Ehud Barak announced Monday morning that he decided to quit his lifelong political connection with the Labor Party, to create a new faction, the "Independence Party."

Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak attends a news conference at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem January 17, 2011. [Xinhua]

Hours after Barak's move, Welfare and Social Services Minister Isaac Herzog, Minority Affairs Minister Avishay Braverman and Trade, Industry and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer announced their resignation from the government as well.

"We are leaving a party and home that we love," Barak said during a press conference Monday morning.

"Today we're establishing a faction, a movement, and later a party, which will be centrist, Zionist and democratic," he told reporters.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sadi Monday that Defense Minister Ehud Barak's decision to step down from his leadership of the Labor Party would strengthen the governing coalition.

"The government has grown much stronger today, in its governance, in its stability, and this is important for Israel," Netanyahu said in reaction to Barak's move. The prime minister added that Barak's exit wouldn't affect any peace talks with the Palestinians.

"The whole world knows, and the Palestinians know, that this government will be around for the next few years and that it is with this government that they should negotiate for peace," Netanyahu told reporters.

But for many Israeli lawmakers, "the news came like a thunderbolt out of the blue," according to several shocked Knesset parliamentarians speaking with local media.

Barak took with him four other Labor parliamentarians, leaving the party with eight Knesset members. With the new Independence Party's five Knesset members, Netanyahu's right-of-center coalition is still able keep a majority in the parliament.

"I intend to call upon my friends in the renewing Leftist camp to unite forces and embark on the true path of the founders of the Labor movement," Israel's Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog said at a press conference.

"There are those who became confused between the Labor Party's real purpose and Netanyahu's agenda. We are on our way to the opposition and serving the State of Israel," Herzog said.

Herzog told reporters that he and Labor's Shelly Yechimovitch will form a new Labor party. "The Labor Party has got rid of a hump on its back. Barak's masquerade is over," he said, adding that "my friends and I are on a mission to stabilize the Labor Party."

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