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Ehud Barak in more expressive days
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| By Israel Insider staff February 3, 2008 |
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After a dramatic pause, Labor chairman Ehud Barak said he would keep his party in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's coalition, despite the "harsh" conclusions of the Winograd Report on the Second Lebanon War. Instead of holding a press conference or convene political reporters to hear his prepared statement, he conveyed his decision to the reporters waiting outside the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office Sunday morning.
"I decided to remain defense minister, because I know what challenges Israel is standing before: Gaza, Hizbullah Syria, Iran Lebanon, rehabilitating the army and the diplomatic process," Barak said. "Winograd is a harsh report. There are personal and ethical ramifications and conclusions that are not simple. I will deal with them and when the right time comes, set a date for elections."
With his decision to stay in his seat, Barak broke a promise he had made while running for the Labor leadership position. The Winograd report, he said, "requires personal conclusions," Barak said at the time. "Olmert must seek personal conclusions and resign, as Dan Halutz and Amir Peretz did, each in his own way. If Olmert does not [resign] by the full report's publication, we will have to end our partnership with him and work to establish a new government in the current Knesset, or alternatively, to set a date for elections."
Barak said that although he recalled the promise he had made, the situation had changed and he decided to act differently. "I know I am disappointing some and making some happy, but I decided to do what is right for the nation and this is what is right for the nation," Barak said. "I know I could pay a personal price for it, but I know there is a state and the IDF, which are more important for all of us and for me."
Asked by a reporter when he would take Labor out of the government, he said he would decide "at a time that is fitting and not far away."
Despite opposition to remaining in the coalition by four Labor MKs, Barak said his decision would "unite the party," which he said had "a variety of opinions but the same goal." Labor secretary-general Eitan Cabel, who quit the cabinet to protest Olmert's refusal to step down after the interim Winograd Report in April, said he was disappointed Barak did not keep his word. "Barak needed to show leadership and quit the government - a necessary move following the severe results of the Second Lebanon War," Cabel said. "This was a very big mistake."
Labor MK Yoram Marciano, one of Barak's fiercest critics in Labor, slammed him for refusing to face the public in announcing his decision. "He showed lack of leadership by avoiding a press conference," Marciano said. "That's not how a leader should act."
Opposition MKs ridiculed Barak for breaking his promise, claiming that he was afraid of initiating elections, because of his low poll standing. Yediot Aharonot published a Dahaf Institute poll Friday that showed for the first time that Olmert had overtaken Barak for second-place in the polls -- far behind Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu.
"As expected, Barak has run away from his responsibility," a Likud spokesperson said in a statement, echoing the Hebrew alliteration Barak barach: Barak fled, used previously to describe his ignominious flights from a failed training accident at Tzehelim Bet and from Lebanon. "Barak is assisting the leadership that according to both the Winograd Committee and the public has failed and he prefers his political survival to the good of the country."
Meretz Chairman Yossi Beilin called Barak's decision "shameful," adding: "He gave up the opportunity he had to force the replacement of the prime minister and kept Olmert in a position that the Winograd Committee has concluded he cannot fill."
Maj. Yakir Segev, one of the leaders of the IDF reservist protest movement against the government, told Israel Radio that he felt "betrayed" by Barak's decision, adding that the public would "settle scores" with the defense minister in the future. |
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