Defense Minister and Labor Party leader Ehud Barak is to hold a dramatic press conference Monday morning at which he is expected to announce the splitting of the Labor party into two separate factions.
Barak's faction of 5 MKs will be called Atzmaut (Independence) and the other 8 MKs will maintain the Labor party name. The split comes over the desire of the Labor MKs on the far-left to leave the government.