Kadima MK Shlomo Breznitz handed in his resignation to Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik on Tuesday morning. In the letter, he wrote that only reason he quit was because at the age of 71, he wanted to focus the rest of his life on his company, CogniFit, which he founded eight years ago. He said it had been an honor to serve in the Knesset, but "I need the company more than it needs me." He said he had loved a good portion of his work in the Knesset and was thankful to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for giving him the opportunity. Breznitz will be replaced in the Knesset by Kadima Director-General Yohanan Plesner, a Harvard graduate who is close to Olmert. Breznitz - a former president of Haifa University, as well as a psychology professor and a world renowned researcher - was raised in Bratislava by a Christian family after his mother hid him during the Holocaust, and was earmarked to become pope. MK Avigdor Yitzhaki is expected to be the next Kadima member to quit the Knesset in November. He would be succeeded by the next name on the Kadima list, Ehtiopian-born Shlomo Mula, who heads the Jewish Agency's Ethiopian absorption department and is on the WZO executive.
