Ehud Barak
Ehud BarakFlash 90

Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak has decided to run in the September Knesset elections as part of an independent party and not with the Labor Party, Channel 13 News reported on Friday.

Barak had been considering returning to the political arena and running at the head of an independent list, though he was also contemplating the idea of running for the leadership of the Labor Party, which he last led in 2011 before splitting the party and forming the short-lived Independence party.

According to Friday’s report, Barak met during the week with former Deputy IDF Chief of Staff Yair Golan, who has also been contemplating an entry into politics, and the two discussed cooperation in a new political framework.

Barak has good relations with the candidates in the Labor primaries, and therefore cooperation between the two parties is expected, should Barak form a new party.

Labor chairman Avi Gabbay on Tuesday announced that he would not run for the party's leadership in the upcoming elections. On Wednesday, he announced that he would be stepping down from politics altogether.

Had Barak chosen to run for the Labor leadership, he would have been challenged by MKs Amir Peretz, Stav Shafir, and Itzik Shmuli, who have all announced their candidacy in recent days.

The Labor Party had a poor showing in the last elections, when it won just 6 Knesset seats - an all-time low, with most of the blame for the crash being directed at Gabbay.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)