The Jewish tenants who moved into 25 apartments in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan on Sept. 30 really irked former Labor Party Minister Ophir Pines. Not because it was a provocative move by the right wing designed to make it hard to divide the city; there have been similar actions in the past. What upset Pines is the silence of the center-left parties.

Pines — who remembers very different days of activism by the peace camp and a leadership that knew how to shape an alternative — uncharacteristically decided to write a finely honed, painful and critical post on his Facebook page. He signed off with this message: “There once was a peace camp in Israel, but no more.”

Few Israeli politicians have given up a ministerial position for reasons of ideology and values. Pines is one of them. In 2006, when he was viewed as a rising star in the Labor Party and on the left and served as minister of science, culture and sport, Pines resigned from Ehud Olmert's government after Avigdor Liberman came on board as deputy prime minister. In 2010, he left the Knesset after failing to convince his party to remain in the opposition rather than join the right-wing government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu. Therefore, unlike others, when Pines calls on Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Finance Minister Yair Lapid to quit the government, he has the moral standing to do so.

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Pines painted a grim picture of the left, which in his opinion has capitulated to the flowering of the right. He also said, however, it is not too late for leaders on the left to take stock and present alternatives to the current regime.