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Sharon and Barak discuss the National Unity. (Reuters)
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| By israelinsider staff February 18, 2001 |
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Leaders in the Labor Party intend to fight Prime Minister Ehud Barak's plans to join Ariel Sharon's national government as Defense Minister. Party members Haim Ramon, Shlomo Ben-Ami and others have launched fierce attacks on Barak for reversing his announced plans to withdraw from politics after his landslide defeat in the special elections for Prime Minister.
Leading the internal battle against Barak is Interior Minister, Haim Ramon. Interviewed on Israel Radio on Friday, Ramon called Barak "a leader who lowered the Labor Party, norms of power in Israel and the country's political-security-social situation to unprecedented depths in an abyss." Ramon also charged that Barak had failed utterly during the past several months as defense minister.
Ramon has resigned from Labor's coalition negotiating team. "I will not be a member of any team that has no influence when Barak and Sharon are finalizing all details personally." Ramon's visit on Saturday to Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon's ranch did not result in a change of opinion about his refusal to serve in a national unity government.
Joining Ramon in the internal attack on the Labor Party leader was Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, who is closely identified with Barak's peace efforts. Ben-Ami sent a particularly harsh personal letter to Barak on Friday, which he quoted in television interviews. "I was amazed to hear about the turnabout in your approach to a unity government," Ben-Ami wrote. "Don't tell me that this was hard for you and good for the state."
Ben-Ami called Barak's decision to join Sharon a "blatant failure of leadership, which belies all norms of personal conduct."
Labor members critical of Barak's zigzagging
The source of the Labor Party criticism is twofold. First of all there is the 25% margin of Ehud Barak's loss to Sharon in this month's special elections for Prime Minister. Many party members feel that citizens had voted "no confidence" in Ehud Barak's leadership rather than Labor party policies.
The more glaring reason is reaction to Barak's own flip-flops. Following the election, he announced his planned resignation as Labor Party Chairman and Member of Knesset. The sudden reversal of his plans, designated as "zigzagging" by his critics, and his refusal to include others in the decision-making process, have heightened internal opposition.
Barak responded to his critics on Friday, stating that it was not an appropriate time for internal struggles in the party. In an address to party activists and supporters, Barak attacked "members whose biographies read like a history of undermining and subverting," in apparent reference to the party record of Haim Ramon.
Justice Minister Yossi Beilin has refused to attack Ehud Barak personally, stating that he would instead recommend to the Labor Party to reject the national unity option.
The party's Central Committee is to meet this week to vote on joining a national unity government. Ehud Barak's future role in the government will be determined when the party votes on its roster of proposed ministers to serve in Sharon's government.
Labor Party General Secretary Raanan Cohen told the Jerusalem Post that he is "looking for a compromise to prevent the next Labor Central Committee meeting from being hot." According to the intensity and nature of the attacks of party members on Ehud Barak, it looks like Cohen and his party, already burned by Barak's landslide defeat, will be confronting an internal cauldron of dissent on the verge of boiling over.
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