Coalition momentum appears to be increasing as Labor leader Ehud Barak is working to persuade party officials to support such a move. While senior party member Binyamin (Fuad) Ben Eliezer supports the move, there is staunch opposition among some others, including party secretary Eitan Cabel, Ofir Pines, Amir Peretz and Shelly Yacimovitz.

It is doubtful if Barak will receive a majority, and his options include taking his party to the benches of the opposition, taking one-third of the party and moving to Likud, and even breaking away and becoming a ‘professional defense minister’ similar to Daniel Friedman, who is not an MK but holds a senior ministerial post.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)