After years of conflict in the Labor Party, Defense Minister and Labor Party chairman Ehud Barak took what many saw as a step Wednesday evening to unify the party around him and informed party secretary-general, MK Eitan Cabel, that he planned on beginning the process of removing him from his position.
Barak told Cabel during a meeting that he would remove Cabel from his position after Cabel refused to bow to the decision of the party's steering committee to enter the government. Instead, Cabel accused Barak of "burying" the Labor Party, and was absent from the floor when the Knesset voted to approve the new government.
Cabel told Barak that the Labor chairman could not simply decide to fire him, and that he would need to call together the Labor Party Committee in order to seek to remove Cabel and replace him. In the meantime, Barak said that a director-general would be appointed to oversee the daily management of the beleaguered party.
