MK Ophir Pines announced his resignation from the Knesset and from the Labor Party, saying the party has no path and no leader.
Pines and three other Labor MKs had been considering quitting the party for several months and starting a new one, in protest of Labor’s decision – driven by Labor Chairman Defense Minister Ehud Barak – to join the Netanyahu government.
He held a press conference in the Knesset on Thursday afternoon, saying, “If the choice is between adhering to my Knesset seat and maintaining my values, I choose the values. If I believed that by continuing to serve in the Knesset, I could serve the public, I would remain and struggle without compromise, as I did throughout my years of service here. However, the political circumstances that have been created have led me to conclude that I cannot really influence the Knesset of Israel.”
Asked about the option of forming a new faction with the other three MKs, Pines told Ynet, “I don’t want to get into details. I reached the conclusion, after a very careful check, that this alternative that I hoped for cannot be formed in the particular way that I believed in, and I don’t want to expand on this at this point.”
His three erstwhile political allies – MKs Eitan Cabel, Yuli Tamir and Amir Peretz – did not know in advance of the press conference, and expressed sorrow at his resignation.
Criticizing Barak’s decision to join the a right-wing coalition, Pines said, “This approach that says that remaining in the Opposition is some kind of disease – is terrible. What kind of political culture is this where you can’t represent a public sector in the Opposition. I guarantee that if Labor was in the Opposition now, we would have been able to influence 100 times more than by being in this government.”
Pines noted that Labor has dropped from 44 Knesset seats in 1992, to 13 today.
He was first chosen to the Knesset in 1996, when Netanyahu was first elected Prime Minister. He served as Interior Minister under the first Ariel Sharon government – also a right-wing-led government – and for a short time as Minister of Science under PM Olmert.
Dr. Einat Wilf
New MK Dr. Einat Wilf
Pines will be replaced in the Knesset by Dr. Einat Wilf, a Ph.D. in Political Science from Cambridge University, and the author of two books: “Establishers, Fighters and Us: The Third Generation and the Struggle for the Image of the State of Israel,” and “Return to Basics: How to Save Education in Israel (Without Adding to the Budget).”