JERUSALEM, Jan 17: Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak said on Monday he was leaving his struggling Labour party and setting up a new centrist party called “Independence,” in a move set to strengthen the Israeli government.

The surprise decision will see Barak and four other deputies leave the strife-torn party to start a new “centrist, Zionist and democratic” faction that will be part of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition.

The former premier, who has been Labour leader since 2007, said he was leaving the party as a result of its “shift to the left,” as well as increasing divisions within it.

Barak’s departure prompted Labour’s three remaining ministers to step forward and announce they were quitting Netanyahu’s coalition in order to rebuild the party from the ranks of the opposition.

Netanyahu was quick to praise Barak’s move, saying it would strengthen the government, particularly in respect to negotiations with the Palestinians.

“The government was greatly strengthened today,” Netanyahu told a meeting of MPs from his right-wing Likud party which was broadcast on public television.

“It was strengthened in its governance, it was strengthened in its stability,” he said of the move, which is likely to give him a stable majority, with 66 MPs in the 120-member Knesset or parliament.

“The whole world knows, and the Palestinians know too, that this government will be here in the years to come and it is with (this government) that negotiations must be conducted,” he said.

Israeli media pundits said the move had been coordinated in advance with Netanyahu who had in return agreed to let Barak and two other party members continue to hold their ministerial posts.—AFP