An internal rift in the Labor party has emerged over the chairmanship of the Knesset's Economy Committee. While most Knesset committees are headed by MKs from the Coalition, the Economy Committee is granted to the largest Opposition party.
The leading candidate for the position is MK Eitan Cabel, who is considered close to Labor Chairman, MK Yitzhak Herzog, and who has asked for the appointment.
However, former party chair MK Shelly Yechimovich, who some see as the party's true strongwoman, also desires the position.
Sources in Labor said that if agreement is not reached in the matter, Herzog may bring it to a vote, in which case Yechimovich has better chances of winning.
Yechimovich sent a letter to her supporters Saturday evening, in which she surprisingly wrote that Labor will support social legislation propsed by the government. The government's diplomatic agenda is “appalling,” she wrote. It is “right wing, paranoid, pugnacious, alienated from the world.”
However, she continued – socially, the government is better than its predecessors. “There are some really good ministerial appointments, and to be completely frank – I have a greater common denominator with some of them than with numerous elements in the Opposition.”