Labor Party Secretary General Eitan Cabel on Wednesday said he had no intention of suspending himself or resigning in light of his support for Ehud Barak to take over for Amir Peretz as Labor chairman and defense minister.
Cabel declared his support for the former prime minister earlier on Wednesday, joining a number of senior Labor officials who have already declared their support for Barak, including MK Matan Vilnai, who did so on Tuesday evening.

According to recent polls, Barak and MK Ami Ayalon are locked in a tight race to take over as the party's chair, with Peretz coming in fourth.

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MK Avishai Braverman (Labor), a supporter of Ami Ayalon, on Wednesday called on Cabel to resign from his position as the party's secretary general or suspend himself.
According to Braverman, it is not appropriate for a party's secretary general to belong to one camp or the other.
In a statement, Vilnai explained his reasons for supporting Barak, his one-time political rival.

"The State of Israel and Labor party need people with experience and long-term familiarity with the security and defense establishments in order to extract it from the recent crisis," he said. "Now is the time to put the past behind us and make the right decision for the country and party."

In 2005 Vilnai ran an aggressive campaign against Barak for the Labor party leadership, in which he blamed him for losing the general elections to Ariel Sharon.

"Who said there's a new Ehud Barak? Because of this or that poll conducted while Barak is making noise and doing nothing ... have we lost our minds? Is he the man who should lead our party?" Vilnai said at the time.

Eventually, Vilnai and Barak both withdrew from the race and supported party veteran Shimon Peres, who in turn lost to current party leader and Defense Minister Amir Peretz.

Vilnai is said to have decided to support Barak after a series of joint meetings. Ministers Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Shalom Simhon and Isaac Herzog have already announced their support for Barak.