A news conference held Tuesday by four of the remaining eight Labor Knesset members shows that after Ehud Barak and four of his colleagues in Labor bolted the party, the remaining members are lost in political space. They have no leader and are split into two four-person groups that also have no clear leadership.
One of these groups held a news conference Tuesday and announced it would not be quitting Labor for the time being. The most senior member of the group is former defense minister Amir Peretz, and it also includes MKs Eitan Cabel, Daniel Ben-Simon and Ghaleb Majadleh.
Peretz and the other three said they would be holding talks with the second Labor quartet to try and find common ground.
The second quartet consists of former ministers Binyamin Ben Eliezer, Avishai Braverman and Yitzchak Herzog, as well as maverick MK Shelly Yechimovich.
A running gag in the Knesset these days is "Baruch Dayan HaEmet" - "blessed be the Judge of Truth" - the phrase used to comfort Jews after the death of a loved one. "Emet," which means "truth," is also the three-letter combination that represents Labor in the polling booths during elections.