The three “Labor rebels,” MKs Amir Peretz, Eitan Cabel and Daniel Ben-Simon, held a press conference Monday at which they announced their return to party politics. The three had attempted to leave the Labor party after accusing party leader Ehud Barak of abandoning Labor's principles, but were unable to gather enough support from within the party to form a breakaway group.
The MKs said that they would return to Labor only in order to fight for change from within the party. Each one made it clear that he still disagrees with Barak's policies, and with Labor's partnership in the Likud-led coalition.
Peretz warned reporters not to read too much into his decision to return. “One thing is for sure: none of you should expect that the party's emblem will say 'Here Peretz and Barak live happily together,'” he said. “We're going back in order to be the opposition.”
He harshly criticized Barak, saying, “History is full of examples of Bolshevik regimes that took over the mechanisms of power, but not the spirit of the voters. That's the situation in Labor.”
Cabel agreed, saying, “I'm not going back to the Labor party. This is a tactical maneuver, nothing more.”
The three MKs said openly that they were rejoining Labor only because attempts to form a breakaway party had failed.
"Since the attempt to set up an alternate framework failed, I thought it would be best for us to fight from within the existing framework,” said Ben-Simon. However, he said, he will not return as a loyal member of Barak's Labor. “I gave it a year... I tried to work with Netanyahu and to go according to what he and Barak decided, but that arrangement has come to an end.”
"The state is captive in the hands of Israel Our Home (Leiberman's Yisrael Beitenu party) and Shas,” Ben-Simon continued. “The state is more hareidi, and more right-wing, with help from Labor. I expect the Labor party to leave the coalition by the summer.”