Why did Herzog decide on his own to quit? Why didn't the remaining Likud caucus meet in order to show a unified front and make a joint press conference? Solidarity forever? Crikey, not even for two hours! United we stand, divided we fall? Well, does anybody see any unity in the Labor Party? Will we see a new leader of Labor who can get the party back on the tracks of social democracy? The kiss of death will be if the senior Labor MKs vying for the party leadership speak the words that will be the kiss of death for the Labor Party. The last thing we voters want to hear is that the new Labor will be the leader of the "peace camp". We don't want a peace camp. We want a social democratic party concerned with the country's issues, of which peace with the local Arabs is but one issue, not the only issue.

Labour Party is collapsing.

Why did Herzog decide on his own to quit? Why didn't the remaining Labor caucus meet in order to show a unified front and make a joint press conference?

Your comments in talkback #3 is indicative of how ignorant you are of Israeli/Jewish history and even Israeli politics over the past century. Ben-Gurion was one of the first to leave Mapai in the 1970s. He left and formed a new political party. A number of well-known people in Mapai have done the same. Based on your other comments you have made in the past, I have noticed that you are also ignorant about Arab and Muslim history as well including knowledge of the Quoran and what it dictates to you as a Muslim. Poor sweet, ignorant Salma. All that you have to do to reverse ignorance is to read.

If Labour decides to bank on the "peace train" platform, they better plan on declaring bankruptcy. Meretz already has that stake and look where they are. The main issues that concern those of us on the left at the moment are domestic issues and not one single party on the left is focused on them. There is no one to negotiate with on the PA side, they aren't into negotiating. So for the love of the country, please focus on education, jobs, the plight of our senior citizens, working families. We the citizens have been abandoned by the left.

to roll over anything. Gee....the Knesset commissary must be serving some g-d awful food. Can anyone spell low fat? Mr Minister..Get on the treadmill and stop flapping your mouth.

While we all know that Ehud Barak is a low-life slime-ball opportunist, a back-stabber par exellence, a man with loyalty only to himself, Netanyahu has shown himself to be quite a slick politician, a master in the cesspool of Israeli politics. He has out-manouevered the Left - this is a real kick in the teeth as we can all see by the howls of hysteria coming from the Left. Labour is neutralized, consigned to the rubbish bin of history where it belongs. Kadima has been rendered even more irrelevent than before. Mark my words, Netanyahu's next move will be to lure away Kadima members, to split Kadima. Netanyahu knows how to play the game & he knows intimately the sad character of our crap politicians.

there'll be 6M more political parties. One need not worry.

They were dying for a long time, but today the doctors finally pulled the plug

Herzog, a well intended dreamer that has no grasp of reality. Braverman, almost a standing joke and a detriment to any party. Ben-Eliezer - I respect him for his past service but he's now a nowhere man. The three of them were just dead-weight. I'm no fan of Barak, but he can run rings around the likes of the above. What are Barak's hobbies? Locks and clocks which should tell you something ;-) Michael

I voted for Lieberman twice and not because I wanted him to be PM but because I wanted to add right wing influence to the Knesset. The first time that I voted for him probably all of my friends told me that I was voting for an extremist. And the second time many of them voted for him too. Lieberman could well become next PM. What do you think? Michael

David Ben-Gurion is the founding father of "Israel" and not only the founding father of Labour Party , Baby, do you understand me now ?!mmmm......doubt.

They are a useless bunch of misfits who give an entire nation a gutful of misery - day in and day out. They are an absolute disgrace - the lot of them!

I thought we had to have a coalitition govt because there were different parties with diffferent views - wow, how quickly Barak moved and he told the PM but not his own party - I think anyone could buy him if they could afford him! Another govt with him and Lieberman and we will become an isolated 3rd world country!!- Wake up people!

I voted for Lieberman for exactly the same reason, mostly, because I just couldn't trust Netanyahu to stick to the promises he made as a candidate. I figured Lieberman would add more right-wing influence. A great many of my friends did the same thing for the same reason. I don't think Lieberman is even vaguely an extremist but I doubt if he could become PM. But, one never knows, never say never in Israeli politics. Who would I like to see as PM? John Bolton from America. I've been here long enough not to trust any Israeli politician.

With integrity vision and smarts (bing back Baram and Mitzna) and enthusiastic support from peace and justice oriented diaspora jews who now support dozens upon dozens of progressive grass roots ngo's in constituencies beyond the traditional left base among old line askenazi a new movement can arise.

Poor, ignorant Salma, you are dead wrong again sweetheart. How embarrassing for you! Ben-Gurion was neither the father of Israel nor the founder of the Mapai party! Abraham was the founder of Israel over 4,000 years ago, and A.D. Gordon founded the Mapai party in 1930! I just hope there are more Arabs with your wisdom and vast knowledge of Middle Eastern history! Once again, the remedy for ignorance is reading. Read, read, read!

I was looking for your views on this political development. Regarding Lieberman: my fear is that police have something on him. He and his daughter have been under investigation for years. That's one of the elite's methods to make leaders conform to their agenda. If he became PM they would give him a clear choice, and the voters would be betrayed again as they were under Sharon. Isn't anyone else in his party who could fill his shoes? Isn't there anyone else to lead Likud? For people so talented, Israel really has a problem finding good politicians.

Yet Huckabee and Gingrich could be good too.

Rabin might be rolling in his grave but he's still dead. Ben Gurion the same, but because of the state of Israeli politics today, not because of this rubbish within an ever more irrelevant Labor Party. Basically, here's the truth - either you're a Zionist or you're not. Kadima has no real direction, and basically the current government constitutes almost all of the Zionist Israeli parties (except NU). All the remaining parties in the Knesset constitute a fifth column that should be removed. As for the comment about Netanyahu being untrustworthy and the one who will end up splitting Kadima, I agree, but one must figure that when one spends more time having to wheel and deal with all kinds of opportunist coalition members than getting any real business done, this is what you get.

Our Party List system produces mediocre political hacks who are responsible to the party leader. Such a system cannot produce leaders. But, there is another problem. Many of our politicians have a double-constituancy to a greater or lesser degree. Take Shimon Peres as an extreme example. He ONLY cares about how he is regarded by foreigners. Or Tzippi Livni who is the stooge of Obama & the EU. Others of our political elite are European wannabees, they just want to be ''in'' with the ''right crowd'' - Yair Lapid comes to mind. These people can't get it through their heads that the Europeans (and American ''progressives'' only like us when we agree to commit suicide. Lieberman knows where his constituancy is - right here in Israel. You're right, of course about the smear tactics that the Left would use against him. Netanyahu is similarly afraid of the Left & the Left-wing media. We won't have good leaders until we get rid of the Party List system & make politicians individually accountable to the electorate.

Personally I don't like Barak, But I have to like it because it is a great move for Israel and it's government. The labor cannot any longer threaten to quit , they can all quit if they want. Livni cannot any longer demand for new elections . Labor and Kadima became irrelevant and extraneous, Now Barak can move to the right and tell the rest of the losers so long suckers!!! LOL

Yachimovich defined Barak's move as "a corrupt and opportunistic moves, aimed solely at keeping Barak in the government." Comment - What is most important, Israel or - Earlier, Yachimovich implied that she may run for the role of Labor chairperson in the future. "Today, more than ever, we see the need to reestablish a Zionist, social-democratic, social and sane party. I'll do all in my power for the Labor Party to become such an alternative again," she said. - the Labor Party ? Not that the DM nor the Labor Party is any favorite of mine though. Orao.

...The "left" in Israel has lost its way since Mr. Yasser Arafat rejected Israel's peace offer at Camp David, 2000, and initiated several year long campaign of terror against the Jewish community of Israel. The vast majority of Israelis realized that there wasn't anyone among the Muslim-Arabs ready to live peacefully alongside the nation-state of the Jewish people and to consider a peace treaty the "end of the conflict". Some in the left simply continued to act based on that which was trendy in certain circles abroad and that which was "politically correct" among "progressives" overseas instead of facing reality for what it was. The Israeli voters reduced the "left" in Israel to three members of Knesset for Meretz plus eight now for Labor and this out of a house of 120 members... What we have experienced today is the latest development in this saga of a fading away "left" and the realization among Jews, within and without their nation-state of Israel that until and unless the Muslim-Arab leaders, local and regional, accept Israel's RIGHT to be, to exist as the nation-state of the Jewish people and a peace treaty must be the end of the conflict, there is no reason for lowering our guards.

and not a woman in falistein. If you can't spell labor correctly, you are not a local. Gotcha.