Labor MK Uzi Bar’am announced his retirement from politics today. An outspoken political opponent of Ehud Barak, Bar’am has been a Knesset Member since 1977, and served as Minister of Tourism - and briefly as Minister of the Interior - in the Rabin-Peres government. Bar\'am is the third Labor MK to announce his resignation since the Barak\'s crushing electoral defeat of last week; Barak and Eli Goldshmidt preceded him.
Labor MK Yael Dayan bemoaned what she called the “continuing crumbling” of the party. She announced today that she is against joining a Likud-led unity government, but would not quit if this were to be the party’s decision. Given the apparent majority in the party for joining a unity government, at least one senior party figure apparently plans to quit Labor: Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, who m ay form a new left-wing party with Meretz and MK Roman Bronfman. The race for Labor party leadership is likely to be between Avraham Burg, backed by Chaim Ramon and Yossi Beilin, and Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who may have support from Shlomo Ben-Ami. MK Bar\'am said today that he would support Burg for the party leadership.
Labor MK Yael Dayan bemoaned what she called the “continuing crumbling” of the party. She announced today that she is against joining a Likud-led unity government, but would not quit if this were to be the party’s decision. Given the apparent majority in the party for joining a unity government, at least one senior party figure apparently plans to quit Labor: Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, who m ay form a new left-wing party with Meretz and MK Roman Bronfman. The race for Labor party leadership is likely to be between Avraham Burg, backed by Chaim Ramon and Yossi Beilin, and Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who may have support from Shlomo Ben-Ami. MK Bar\'am said today that he would support Burg for the party leadership.