Barak. 'The public doesn't want you'
Photo: Roy Idan
Barak: Labor must not veer left from Meretz
Defense minister met in Beersheba by party activists urging him to quit, calls for unity within Labor
Defense Minister Ehud Barak,
who visited the southern city of Beersheba on Tuesday for a meeting with Labor Party
activists from across the Negev region, was met with an emotionally charged atmosphere.
Barak explained to the activists that "Labor must be in the center. (Former Prime Minister David) Ben-Gurion
was in the center, (former Prime Minister Yitzhak) Rabin
was in the center – while after his death people tried to take him left from Meretz.
The Labor chairman called on all party members to unite and said Labor must refrain from turning left.
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"We must be in the center, and that's the party's place. We represent the public which wakes up in the morning, goes to work and pays taxes, the State of Israel's main backbone."
Some of the activists blamed Barak for the party's grim situation. "You deceived us. The public doesn't want you as the party's chairman," said Meir Babayof, chairman of the Negev district in the Histadrut labor federation.
"The public is only giving you six Knesset seats (according to recent polls), and with this you must go home," Babyof stated bluntly. "Where else are you leading us? You are (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu's armor-bearer and are causing us to lose our identity. The only solution is for you to go home."
One of the activists came out to Barak's defense, telling Babayof, "If you don't like it here, go to Meretz."
The meeting was closed to the media. One of the activists, Rami Azoulay, told Ynet, "There is no doubt that there is a lot of anger against the chairman. We are going from bad to worse with Barak. He is a passerby, but we are staying here."
One of the activists, Anda Lieberman, said that the people who spoke against Barak do not represent all the activists.
"Who can replace him as defense minister? They are speaking from their gut, but I care about my children's future. The only problem is that he and (Knesset Member) Shelly Yacimovich must cooperate again, she on the social level and he on the security level," Lieberman said.
