Israel Matzav

Why the Labor party split

According to Haaretz and to Labor leaders who opposed Barak, the end of the line for Barak came early this month with Haaretz's publication of a report claiming that the Obama administration had soured on Barak due to his failure to convince Netanyahu to extend the Jewish construction ban in Judea and Samaria for an additional 90 days. Livni, Haaretz reported, had replaced Barak as the Obama administration's favorite Israeli politician.

Since the article was published, Barak could no longer maintain the contradiction between Labor's radical policies and its protestations to ruling party status. Without American support, there was no way to keep Labor together.

This is why, when he announced his break with Labor on Monday morning, Barak explained that Labor had become a radical party that was home to post-Zionists who believe that Israel alone is to blame for the absence of peace. The post-Zionists rejected him when he lost his international support. So he had nowhere to go but into Netanyahu's waiting Zionist arms.

This is also why Livni and Kadima have so harshly attacked Barak. In an interview with Army Radio on Tuesday, Livni - whose political career owes entirely to her decision to betray Likud voters - called Barak's split from Labor "the dirtiest act," in history. More importantly, the woman who claims that Netanyahu is solely to blame for the absence of peace with the Palestinians and that he is wrong not to bow to every US demand protested, "For Barak to call whoever wants peace post-Zionist is unheard of."

Labels: Caroline Glick, Ehud Barak, Tzipi Livni

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:16 PM