Barak loses ally as Ben Simon quits chairman post

Knesset member Daniel Ben Simon yesterday announced his resignation as Labor faction chairman after only five months, dealing another blow to party chairman Ehud Barak.

Ben Simon said he was not joining the four Labor "rebels" at this point.

However, he no longer saw himself bound to coalition discipline and would act as a one-man faction, he said.

The former Haaretz journalist blasted Barak's policies at a news conference yesterday, saying, "the man heading Labor is responsible for the [West Bank] outposts and I cannot accept that."

Labor failed to achieve its goals vis-a-vis the peace process and "should not be in the coalition," he said.

About two hours later Labor's Knesset faction held its weekly session in low spirits. The "rebels" boycotted the meeting and Ben Simon's place at the head of the table remained empty.

Ben Simon held several meetings with Barak over the past few weeks following his strong objections to the continuation of West Bank settlement construction.

Labor's "rebels" were pleased by Ben Simon's resignation.

MK Yuli Tamir said "Barak is losing legitimacy as a leader. It is clear that with his ideology he cannot remain in this position. He must find another party.

"Ben Simon's resignation shows that Barak is losing what remains of his support and in fact there is no party, only a group of people acting separately."

Ben Simon also recently partnered with ministers Avishai Braverman and Isaac Herzog in an attempt to compel Barak to initiate a diplomatic process that would restart peace talks with the Palestinians.

Ben Simon failed to manage the faction, set its agenda or reconcile between Barak and the "rebels."

The "rebels" boycotted faction meetings while he was bound to coalition discipline, even when its decisions were not in keeping with the ideology for which he was elected to the Knesset. He felt this tarnished his image, and that he was becoming increasingly isolated in Labor.

Following Ben Simon's resignation, there are five groups operating in Labor's 13-strong faction - the four "rebel" MKs Tamir, Eitan Cabel, Amir Peretz and Ophir Pines-Paz; ministers Herzog and Braverman; MK Shelly Yachimovich; MK Ben Simon; and Barak and ministers Shalom Simhon and Benjamin Ben-Eliezer.