Israel Matzav

Barak zig zags again

Ehud Barak, whose flight from Lebanon in 2000 was largely ignored by the Winograd Committee, announced today that he will keep his Labor party in the government, despite a commitment to leave the government upon publication of the Winograd Committee's final report unless Prime Minister Ehud K. Olmert resigns. They don't call him Mr. Zig Zag for nothing.

"I'm going to continue to function as the defense minister because I see the challenges ahead of us - Gaza, Hizbullah, Iran, Syria, as well as the improvement of the army and the political echelon," Barak said during a press conference before the weekly cabinet meeting.

Barak said that although the Winograd report was "severe" and had personal and moral implications, he would deal with them in the future. "I know that I might pay a political price for staying in the government," he added.

"I remember well what I said in Sdot Yam, but the situation today is different," Barak said.

The Labor chairman was referring to a promise, made in May during a press conference in Kibbutz Sdot Yam, to quit the government after the final Winograd report is released. "[The report] 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 [quit] 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."

If anything, what is different today from the situation that faced Barak when he promised at Sdot Yam in May ought to cause him to leave the government more quickly. The Winograd Committee has reported that the Second Lebanon War was carried out without a plan and with the expectation that someone else is going to come pull our chestnuts out of the fire, and the government is repeating the same mistakes all over again in Gaza. As expected, everyone outside of Labor and Kadima blasted Barak for his decision. You can read all the reactions here; I just want to highlight two of them:

Coalition Deputy Chairman MK Yoel Hasson (Kadima) praised Barak for displaying "national responsibility" and preventing unnecessary elections.

"He put the good of country above the good of his own political interests as he promised," he said.

Hasson went on to say that the time was right to bring UTJ into the coalition and "stabilize the coalition politically."

First of all, if Hasson were correct that Barak "put the good of the country above his own political interests," he would have been the only one in this government to have done so. But of course, Hasson is mistaken. As to UTJ, a party whose institutions are constantly in need of money, I don't believe that they will be foolish enough to go into a government that has made dividing Jerusalem part of its platform. The rabbis may tell UTJ's voters how to vote, but in the end, when you go behind the screen to pick up the slip and put it in the envelope, it's between you and God and there are an awful lot of people out there who don't believe that God will punish them for voting their consciences.

Then there's this quote:

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.

Those are very harsh words. I hope that the 'future' is not too far away.

Arutz Sheva has a lot more quotes from some Labor MK's - the ones who aren't ministers - who are upset with Barak's decision:

Speaking at a news conference June 6, 2007, one week prior to the party's runoff primary that led to his election as Labor chairman, Barak told reporters, "The Winograd Report is a tough report, requiring personal conclusions. Olmert must come to his own personal conclusions and resign, as did Dan Halutz and Amir Peretz, in their way." Barak added that "if Olmert does not quit before the release of the final report, we [Labor] will be forced to end our cooperation with Olmert, and work to create a new coalition within the current government, or alternatively, we'll work toward setting a date for elections."

Barak appeared at the news conference together with fellow Labor Knesset member Ophir Pines-Paz, who announced he would back Barak's candidacy but had also made it clear his support was conditional on Barak's position vis a vis the Winograd Report.

Labor Party members slammed Barak's decision to renege on his promise to end the party's participation in the Olmert government, warning the party could lose grassroots popularity by supporting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in the wake of the Winograd Report.

Had Barak kept his vow to pull his 19-seat party out the coalition if Olmert did not resign or call new elections after the release of the report, the government would have collapsed. Olmert would have then been forced either to build a new coalition or call new elections.

MK Shelly Yechimovitch (Labor) said she is "sorry" about the decision, and said Barak's decision would have negative repercussions on the Labor Party. Party Secretary Eitan Cabel said Barak squandered a chance to show leadership. "I'm sorry to say he failed to do that. The Labor Party may well suffer badly for that decision."

Another Labor Knesset Member, Danny Yatom, slammed Barak and Olmert together, saying he was "disappointed" that Barak failed to force Olmert to "make a decision." "In any normal, moral country, Olmert would have resigned in light of the report, or the Labor Party would have created a situation where he would have been forced to do so," said Yatom.

Under the Basic Law: The Knesset, one third of a faction may break off from its party and form a new faction. Labor has nineteen seats. Pines-Paz, Yechimovitch, Cabel and Yatom make four MK's. They need three more. Are there three more Labor MK's who are tired of this corrupt junta?

Haaretz has a couple more interesting reactions:

Cabel was not the only party official to express dissatisfaction with the move, with Labor's young guard vowing to fight the decision. "We can't fool all the people all the time," said the young guard's chairman, Eran Hermoni. "The Labor Party is committing suicide. This is not the new political message that the young generation was expecting."

...

Meretz faction whip Zahava Gal-On also slammed Barak, saying he and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert "should be condemned on the stand of public disgrace."

"A reckless and irresponsible prime minister has a defense minister that has no credibility, shame or moral values, who instead of demonstrating leadership and demanding the removal of the failure Olmert, delivers a slap in the face to the soldiers, bereaved families, and citizens who have lost their faith in democracy," she continued.

"Olmert and Barak have driven the political system to a new low," she said.

Uh oh. I agree with Zany Zehava again. Here's more:

The leaders of the reservists' protest movement issued a statement assailing Barak's decision, saying "politics have defeated the state."

"We are witnessing the pact of the failures, the pact of the cynics who are greedy for personal survival," said the statement.

The protest movement was guardedly optimistic that Barak would keep his promise to resign, following a meeting Thursday between the defense minister and representatives of the reservist group.

"I am not only disappointed, I feel betrayed," said Major (res.) Yakir Segev, who hosted Thursday's meeting. "In his meeting with us it was not clear what his decision would be, but it was clear that he understood that the report is harsh, that he does not buy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spin, and that he understands what the right thing to do would be from a moral standpoint."

"Now I feel as if the politicians have betrayed us twice - once in the war, and once after," he said.

Don't forget that in this country, 'reservists' includes close to half the population between the ages of 21 and 45. It's not a small group. And tomorrow should be interesting.

Yossi Sarid, the former Meretz Party leader, and Yaakov Hasdai, who was a member of the Agranat Commission that investigated the Yom Kippur War, will be among the speakers at a planned demonstration Monday across from the Knesset, scheduled to coincide with a plenum discussion of the Winograd Commission's final report.

It will be interesting to see how many people show up to that demonstration tomorrow. In the meantime, Mr. Zig Zag continues to make his moves and Israel continues to burn with anger.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:50 PM