Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is taking advantage of the fact that Defense Minister Ehud Barak is anti-social or is taking advantage of my lack of presence in the government in order to change the budget, former Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Sunday evening.
Peretz, who is out of the country on a private vacation, made the remarks in a conversation with his associates.
The former Labor chairman expressed his anger over the principles of the 2008 state budget, which he claimed harshly damaged the coalition agreement he signed when the Labor Party entered the government following the 2006 elections.
"The two major issues the Labor focused on during the elections – the minimum wage and manpower companies – were abandoned. These are issued I had advanced in the past year as Labor chairman. I even voted against the previous budget at the government," Peretz stressed.
"It appears that the Finance Ministry understands that it has run into an opportunity in which it will be able to pass decisions which were part of Barak's policy as a former prime minister. They plan to try and tempt Barak by increasing the defense budget, in exchange for hurting the minimum wage and manpower companies," he said.
Aides to Peretz stressed that "he insists that the tanks must not be but in front of the children, the planes must not be put in front of the elderly, and the cannons must not be put in front of the workers."
According to the associates, during his term as Labor chairman, Peretz managed to increase the minimum wage by NIS 500 (about $116) in the past year, as well as pass a decision in the special committee for manpower companies.
'There is a limit to silence'
Peretz's associates said that the former Labor chairman was trying not to attack his replacement and that he was giving Barak 100 days of grace, but could not hold back regarding the social issue.
Peretz said that "the discussion on the state budget is not part of the commitment. This is a crisis that requires Labor to leave the government. This is a blatant violation of the coalition deal, and a failure to meet the most basic commitments.
"Many elements in the Labor Party who slammed me over the social issues will have to apologize, because I also managed to increase the defense budget in the past, as well as fix all the social issues which are going to be frozen in the current budget… All our achievements are going down the drain," he warned.
The former defense minister also told his associates that "Ehud Barak is a Netanyahu double. We knew he was a Bibi double, but we did not know that the finance minister would dare present such a budget, assuming that he would be able to pass it. Barak is anti-social."
Sources at Barak's office refused to respond to the remarks, but senior Labor officials asked, "Has Peretz already returned from his coast-to-coast trip in the United States and is already attacking?"