Labor's MK Daniel Ben-Simon announced Monday that he is stepping down from the post of faction whip. “Nowadays it is not a pleasant thing to be a member of the Labor party,” he said. “The party must search its soul.”
Ben-Simon cited the outpost communities in Yehudah and Shomron (Judea and Samaria) as a problem and demanded that they be torn down immediately. “This is a coalition of the far-right and the Labor party is assisting in its survival,” he said. “Anyone who tours the territories of Yehudah and Shomron knows that today there are more outposts than when we entered the government.”
Terminal Condition
Ben-Simon said he would not hesitate to vote against the coalition if he judged this to be the right thing to do. “The party's condition is a terminal one and the person standing at the helm is responsible for that,” he said. “Ideologically I cannot go on in this situation.” He did not rule out the formation of a new party that would be an alternative to the Labor party; talk of such has been common within Labor of late.
Ben-Simon joined Labor on June 11, 2008, after a many years as a journalist at Haaretz. He was placed in the 11th spot in the primaries before the last elections. In the past, Ben-Simon was a member of the leftist group Agenda.
He is one of a group of journalists-turned-rookie-Knesset Members in the current Knesset, which includes MK Uri Orbach (Jewish Home) and MK Nitzan Horovitz (Meretz). Minister Gideon Saar (Likud) and MK Shelly Yechimovich (Labor) are also former journalists.