CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM, Israel - Labor MK (member of Knesset) Danny Yatom resigned from the Knesset (parliament) Monday, saying he could no longer be part of a government that "has made political survival its only goal."

"After five and a half years in the Knesset, I have decided to resign," Yatom said.

"For 43 years, I have served the people and the State in all of my positions in the IDF [Israel Defense Forces], Mossad [intelligence agency], the prime minister's office and the Knesset," he said.

"It's not a secret that in the past three years, since the Second Lebanon War [in the summer of 2006], I have felt more uncomfortable. The leadership in Israel has made political survival its only goal. Moral and ethical codes that were once fundamental have been eroded," he said.

"As a member of the Knesset in a coalition party, I feel as though I am a partner in the deterioration when I vote in favor of the government," he said. "I can no longer function in a reality in which political considerations fill the void of leaderhsip and take precedence over basic values," Yatom said.

Yatom blamed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for the country's political deterioration.

"[Olmert ] failed in the task of leadership in war and did not succeed in moral and public tasks [but] he is not alone, and corrupion standards and improper behavior continue," he said.

Yatom, a retired brigadier general and former Mossad chief, is the second Labor MK to resign in recent months.

MK Efraim Sneh resigned from the Knesset to form a new political party.

Sources: The Jerusalem Post, YNet news