1056 by Jewish News

www.jewishnews.co.uk

31 May 2018

with the apparent failure of the left — the ideology in which Barak was brought up and served as a politician —to provide a credible alternative to the current government. Barak sighs. “Here’s the difference between right wing and left wing electors. The right wing operates like fans of a football club. Their guy is always right, even when he’s wrong. And the left wing functions like a debate class at university, always talking about how the world should have looked.” I am left with the distinct impression that Barak would give both sides a good “schmeiss” if he could. The essence of Zionism, says Barak, “was never to wait for others to define us. We had to take our fate in our hands and not sit idly by.” As long as 15 years ago, he says, he was warning that Israel had to act on its own behalf, not worrying about what the Palestinian leadership was or was not doing. So he is supremely unconcerned about Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s state of health or who will come after him. Israel, he says, has to make choices for its own sake, not for the sake of its putative partners. Ultra-nationalist, populist governments, warns Barak, “need demons from the outside and traitors from within. So we are seeing our Zionist democracy on the slippery slope of looking for a ‘Hitler of the day’ to justify any action.” Instead, he says, Israelis should unite around three pillars of principle: security; the unity and integrity of people rather than the land; and lastly, Israel’s 1948 Declaration of Independence as “our de facto constitution”. And despite all his serious concerns about the direction of the state, Barak remains confident and optimistic. “[Former Prime Minister Yitzhak] Shamir used to say, the sea is the same sea, the Arabs are the same Arabs, we can do nothing. But it’s not true”. And he points to the changes in the Arab world and the two solid peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan. “They learned the hard way that because of our achievements they cannot destroy Israel.” Bottom line for Barak, the soldiers’ soldier, is “does a step help us, or does it weaken

Jewish News meets... Ehud Barak

control’ defence minister in a Bibi-led government between 2007 and 2013. It’s clear from the book that Barak preferred the more cerebral brother, Yoni, but still he warns not to underestimate Bibi – “he’s no lightweight”, he says. But it is precisely because he thinks Netanyahu is a savvy politician that Barak is exasperated with him — and, he says, “he has lost control of the government”, instead allowing hard-liners such as Naftali Bennett, Avigdor Lieberman, and Ayelet Shaked to drive the agenda. The dilemma around the West Bank, says Barak, “is painful but simple”. There are two choices, neither of which fulfils the Zionist dream on which he was raised and in which he still believes. Either there will be a non-Jewish demographic in the area, or the Palestinians “will be permanently under Israeli occupation without being able to vote. That’s not a democracy. I feel that we have a compelling imperative [to pursue the two-state solution], not for the benefit of the Palestinians. It’s about our future identity and direction, that is the crucial question”. It’s fair to say that Barak – who says he wrote the book out of a desire to “tell the truth” – is at his most passionate and furious when detailing the attacks he says the current government has mounted on Israel’s democracy. “It’s auto-immune disease where the body attacks itself. The Israeli Supreme Court is under harsh direct attack; civil society, NGOs, human rights groups, you name it, are attacked by the government which tries to define the centre left as traitors; the free media is under direct attack; and even the basic value sets of the IDF, which, together with the Supreme Court, protected Israeli leadership from being taken to the International Court at The Hague – that ethical code is under direct attack from our own government. “The Israeli Supreme Court is under harsh direct attack; civil society, NGOs, human rights groups, you name it, are attacked by the government.” I ask if he is disappointed

Jewish News

Bibi in London next week

Benjamin Netanyahu embarks on a whistlestop tour of European capitals next week, concluding with talks with Theresa May in Downing Street. Announcing his trip in the Knesset, the prime minister said he planned to tell May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, us”. That was his guiding of the dangers posed by Iran and its principle in Sayeret Matkal, nuclear aspirations. and it remains so today. He is making his tour in the wake Don’t place any bets of the controversial cancellation of against Barak coming to the the Iran deal by Donald Trump, a service of his beloved country move applauded by 12:25 IsraelPage but 1 again soon. PAH Fun day ad 250x172 JC.qxp_200x207 29/05/2018

not by the European leaders, who have all said they plan to stand by the terms of the Obamabrokered deal. Netanyahu said: “I will present our positions as clearly as possible. We are well experienced. For years we stood alone against these twin threats and I think the situation has changed for the better.” He added that he would tell the leaders that there was “no room for any Iranian military presence anywhere in Syria”. That was not just Israel’s position, Netanyahu claimed: “I can say with certainty that it also reflects the positions of others in the Middle East and outside it”.

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