Labor's 'rebel quintet' targets Cabel

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The Labor "rebel quintet" met in the Knesset Monday amid talk that they would garner the 10-percent support necessary to push their proposal for changes through to a key Labor faction meeting. The MKs said they were concerned over how the party was being run and opposed recent changes made by faction leader MK Eitan Cabel. If they receive the 10% they said they would submit a proposal to the Labor faction meeting Thursday that would call for immediate internal elections for a new faction leader. "[Cabel] is an MK, a minister, and the faction leader. It is too much," said a Labor official close to the group. "We want someone whose full attention and interests are with the party." Although members of the group insisted they were not operating against Labor Party chairman Amir Peretz, Cabel has often been termed "Peretz's right-hand man." "We all know that a move against Cabel is a move against Peretz," said a Labor official close to Peretz. The five MKs have been variously labeled as the "Labor rebels" and the "secret five" before requesting that they simply be termed the "quintet." "We are not rebels, we are working for the good of the party, to bring the party back to the people," said MK Colette Avital, who joined MKs Avishay Braverman, Ami Ayalon, Matan Vilna'i and Danny Yatom. Meanwhile, Peretz met with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday evening to settle differences that had surfaced between Kadima and Labor over the last week. At the meeting, described as "friendly and successful," Olmert promised Peretz that all the promises made to Labor in the coalition agreement would be funded in the budget bill. Peretz also updated Olmert on the advanced plans to evacuate settler outposts.