Ehud Barak ran away

Op-ed: Barak’s move not much different than resignation of Hezbollah ministers in Lebanon

Reuters | Published: 01.18.11, 18:26

What’s the difference between Hezbollah ministers, who quit the Lebanese government a moment before being accused of perpetrating the Hariri assassination, and Ehud Barak, who got rid of the Labor party a moment before he suffered a defeat in the primaries?

The difference is clear. Barak did not murder anyone and was never a member of a terrorist organization. Yet nonetheless, the similarities scream out: Barak, just like the Lebanese ministers, ran away. He simply ran away, a moment before it would be too late; a moment before someone else would have forced him to go away. He chose a thuggish political ploy over the good of the state and the public.

Here’s a brief moment from Monday’s “press conference” worth noting: Barak crowning Einat Wilf, who was sitting next to him and will never forget who she owes her 12 seconds of glory to. Forget about your questions, Barak said, listen to her – she has a lovely voice. A brief sentence that contains the whole story: An arrogant leader who shows contempt to his voters and colleagues, and who is also quite a chauvinist.

Dawn of a sad day
As to the hypocritical move to leave Labor, we can say that if it wasn’t so sad, we’d all be laughing. Barak, who used to be the great hope of Israel’s politics, bid the Labor Party farewell Monday, but he also did the same to the voters. The thing is that the State of Israel can no longer afford such flops. Amid the leadership vacuum taking over here, it’s too much of a luxury to easily lose anyone who has the potential to change something around here.

Menachem Begin broke and retired. Yitzhak Rabin was murdered midway. Ariel Sharon collapsed at the most crucial junction. Barak made a laughing stock of himself and of all of us. The ridiculous comparison he made Monday between himself and Ben-Gurion and Peres merely serves to further highlight the dark reality whereby Israel is devoid of leaders. We are left with smalltime politicians who work out big shady deals and make us wonders whether we should be laughing or crying.

It’s of course possible that now that they are no longer terrified by Herzog and Braverman, Bibi and Barak will be able to bring peace to the country and the world. Assuming the chances of this are similar to the likelihood that Barak’s new faction will actually run in the next elections, and assuming that it’s only a matter of time until Barak and Orit Noked join Likud as a sub-faction, what we got Monday morning was mostly the dawn of a sad, ridiculous day; the dawn of a grey day. Very grey.