As the former head of Mossad, Israel's secret service, Danny Yatom is not a man easily ruffled.

Yet halfway through his second term in the Israeli parliament, where he served as a deputy for the Labour party, Mr Yatom found he could take no more. Dismayed by the latest backroom deal to preserve the life of the current government for another three months, he announced his decision to retire from politics last week. "The leadership in Israel has made political survival its only goal. Moral and ethical codes that were once fundamental have been eroded," Mr Yatom declared.