Barak and four of Labor's 13 legislators formed a new independent faction that will remain part of the coalition, with the ex-general remaining defense minister.

Three other Labor Cabinet members opposed to Barak quit. Even if all Labor's lawmakers join the opposition, Netanyahu would still have a majority of 66 seats in the 120-member Knesset.

Barak's abrupt action ended months of in-fighting within Labor, traditionally the bastion of the left, over Netanyahu's foot-dragging on the tortuous peace process with the Palestinians.

But it rid the right wing-dominated coalition of dissenting voices, leaving it more united and coherent against the parliamentary opposition led by the centrist Kadima Party, itself the creation of a split within the right-wing Likud faction.

Barak's defection, which likely spells the end of the once-dominant Labor Party, was reportedly encouraged by Netanyahu and it clearly worked to his advantage in political terms.

But the backroom maneuvering, which avoided a threatened wholesale Labor defection to the opposition ranks, may have given Netanyahu, and Barak for that matter, only a short-term tactical advantage.

Netanyahu still has to contend with his maverick foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman of the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu -- Israel Is Our Home -- party that is a vital component of the coalition.

Indeed, many commentators say Yisrael Beiteinu and the ultra-religious Shas party which is also in the coalition, are making the running on the government's policies with Netanyahu unable to rein them in.

Lieberman, a hard-line Russian immigrant who is fiercely hostile toward all Arabs, particularly those who live in Israel and in the Palestinian territories, is constantly is at odds with Netanyahu and publicly questions his policies.

Lieberman's party has pushed on the coalition a bill that would force Palestinians and other non-Jews to swear allegiance to a Jewish state and another authorizing the investigation of human rights groups critical of the government, a move that even hardened Likud legislators have balked at.

Critics say these bills would doom the foundering peace process and stifle dissent and democracy.

Kadima leader Tzipi Livni warned last week that "an evil spirit has been sweeping over the country and it is our duty to stand up against this wave."

Her comments reflect growing alarm among many Israelis over what's widely seen as the emergence of an authoritarian, die-hard regime that seems determined to doom Israel to perpetual war and uncertainty.

The threat of war with Iran has heightened this alarm. For months, military leaders have warned that Israel faces unprecedented danger from massive missile attacks from the Islamic Republic, its ally Syria and their proxies Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

There have been dire predictions that Tel Aviv, Israel's biggest city and the country's economic and financial heart, will be pounded by missiles capable of reaching anywhere in Israel and which cannot be stopped by the Jewish state's vaunted military.

The liberal Haaretz daily reported last week that Barak ditched the military's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazy, last year after he objected to the minister's plans to carry out pre-emptive strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.

Barak named Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant, head of the army's Southern Command who oversaw the controversial 22-day invasion of Gaza in the winter of 2008-09 and the May 31, 2010, attack on Turkish vessels carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, to succeed Ashkenazy.

Galant is close to Barak and has long been at odds with Ashkenazi.

"The impression is that Galant is more aggressive on Iran and will not block Netanyahu and Barak, who are eager to go into battle" against Iran, Haaetez's well-connected columnist Aluf Benn wrote.

He described a major rift between Israel two most powerful elected leaders and senior figures in the security establishment who are reluctant to initiate a war with Iran they fear would ignite the potentially devastating missile bombardment of the Jewish state.

An unseemly squabbling over naming the new chief of staff in recent months further exposed the growing differences between the fractions.

With Ashkenazi and others slated to join Kadima, this rift can be expected to deepen.

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