Around 300 Labor Youth activists left the party this week to join Kadima, according to former Labor Youth chairman Maayan Amoudai, who submitted his membership form at Kadima’s Petah Tikva headquarters on Wednesday.

Labor Party chairman Ehud Barak removed Amoudai from the chairmanship of Labor Youth after frequent sparring between the two.

Amoudai had fought unsuccessfully to prevent the party from joining Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government.

Amoudai revealed that he has been working behind the scenes for months to persuade Labor members to leave for Kadima. He said he and his allies had submitted 1,000 membership forms to Kadima this week, more than half of which were from former Labor members, including the youth activists.

“Labor is not relevant any more,” Amoudai said. “The party had become a burden on the Center-Left, and it needs help ending its life.

Kadima, by contrast, has proven its maturity as an alternative to the current government.”

Among the new members Amoudai brought in who didn’t come from Labor is Tomer Bohadana, one of the heroes of the Second Lebanon War. Amoudai’s allies call themselves “Derech” and they intend to act as a group inside Kadima, pushing an socioeconomic agenda.

Amoudai denied reports that they had joined Kadima to act as infrastructure in the party for Labor MK Amir Peretz, who may later follow them to Kadima. Amoudai himself is considering running for Knesset with Kadima.

A Labor spokesman responded by denying that hundreds of young people had left Labor, and by calling Amoudai “an opportunist joining a party of opportunists.” (© 1995 - 2010 The Jerusalem Post. 12/30/10)