Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon is the latest victim of the Yisrael Beitenu political reshuffle.

Party chairman Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's foreign minister, announced that Mr Ayalon would not form part of the next Knesset list for the January election.

The decision comes after two controversial party figures announced that they would also leave politics.

MK Anastasia Michaeli and Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov, both members of the Yisrael Beitenu party, gave vague reasons for their departure.

Mr Misezhnikov, the party-loving Tourism Minister, gave no clear reason for his departure on Tuesday. Mr Lieberman “[wished] him luck wherever he goes.”

Ms Michaeli, who notoriously threw a cup of water over another politician and said homosexuals were “victims of sexual abuse as children [and] commit suicide at the age of 40”, was similarly vague in her decision to leave politics for “personal reasons” during the Monday announcement.

Reports suggest that the sudden changes form part of Mr Lieberman’s attempt to clean up his party’s image before the January 22 elections.