Barak and Netanyahu
צילום: דודו אזולאי
Barak's dilemma: Should he join Likud-led government?
Political sources say Labor chairman may be looking for public opinion's support to push him into coalition in light of security-related challenges
Is Barak looking for a way to join Netanyahu's government? Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu and Labor Chairman Ehud Barak met Sunday evening at a Tel Aviv hotel to discuss politics, but mainly security. The only thing they didn't discuss was the opposition.
When they left the meeting, their facial expressions were grave. Barak's associates said he was in a serious dilemma in light of the security-related challenges ahead. The two officials decided to meet again.
In the previous meeting between the two, Barak had said that the voters sent his party to the opposition. This time he sounded different.
Sources in the political arena say that Barak would gladly join Netanyahu's government, if he could, but that he is aware of what his party would do to him – particularly the "future generation". It is quite possible that he is looking for the public opinion's support, which would push him into the government.
Both Barak and Netanyahu's associates say that they are both grownup people who understand the responsibility imposed upon them and the missions they must accomplish.
"The problem is not between them," one of the aides said. "If it were up to them, this could be finalized within two hours."
At the end of his meeting with Netanyahu, Barak said that the two had a comprehensive conversation on the challenges Israel is facing – diplomatic, economic and security-related – and that they would continue talking in the coming days.
Netanyahu said that "the main part of my meeting with Barak dealt with security-related issues, starting with the developments in Iran and the ramifications on our security, through the crisis in the south and its aspects. We also discussed the economic crisis.
"It's clear to everyone that Israel is facing a critical hour, with a pile of challenges which we have not known and have not faced for dozens of years. Israel is no one's private business, not mine and not anyone else's. We decided to continue talking to each other."
There are those in the political arena who estimate that Netanyahu and Barak's decision to declare at the end of their second meeting that they mainly discussed security-related issues and matters fatal to the State of Israel's future was aimed at creating a public atmosphere which would make it easier for the Labor Party to join the government.
Ever since he was tasked with forming the government, Netanyahu has been mentioning the Iranian threat, the financial crisis and the need for a unity government almost every day – in an attempt to publicly pressure the Labor and Kadima parties.
Sources close to Netanyahu rejected the claims, one of them cynically saying that "in the end it will be made clear that everything is splendid here and that those firing the Grad rockets at Israel are Likud activists trying to create an atmosphere of a crisis. We must wake up – the State has many problems that must be dealt with."
