On Tuesday 14th August, Hebrew language media sources described the decision of the MK Avi Dichter to leave the Kadima party to be Home Front Defense Minister in Netanyahu's government as "a big betrayal" of Kadima.

The media sources also said that Ahmad Dabah, 57, from Deir al-Assad, will replace Dichter as a new Kadima member of the Knesset.

Dabah said in a press release that he thinks the Kadima could quickly and unexpectedly regain its electoral force due to having almost 100,000 members and a "special" group of the Knesset members, which join together to maintain and strengthen the party.

The Hebrew media sources reported that Dabah is a father of nine children and a businessman, who owns a series of supermarkets and a farm for meat marketing.

Dabah was formerly the Mayor of the United City of Deir al Assad and Majd al-Kroum, before joining the Likud party in 1992 under ex-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. When Sharon launched the Kadima party, Dabah followed him in splitting from Likud.

Dichter, a former head of Israeli security agency Shin Bet, reached an agreement with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Defense Minister Ehud Barak to resign from the Knesset to become Israel's Home Front Defence Minister, replacing Matan Vilnai who is leaving to become Israel's ambassador to China.

Hebrew language Channel 2 said last night that the agreement was signed after a meeting held between the two parties, which ended with Dichter resigning from the Knesset and leaving the Kadima party.

Kadima's leader Shaul Mofaz recently split from the government coalition, due to differences cropping up between him and Netanyahu following Kadima's call to reform the "Tal" Law so that ultra-Orthodox Jews are no longer exempt from Israeli military surface.

The Channel also said that recently there have been increasing differences between Dichter, who considered establishing a new political party to remain in coalition with Likud, and Mofaz, who preferred to withdraw from the coalition government.

It also reported that Mofaz rejected accusations from other leaders of Kadima that he wanted to "split" the party.