Haaretz-09/08/2007

Editorial, (Haaretz)

"Defense Minister Ehud Barak is acting as if he had been hired as an external consultant to rehabilitate the Israel Defense Forces after the Second Lebanon War: He is devoting all his attention to that task. Even though he is the Labor Party leader who, at Camp David, came closest to an agreement with the Palestinians on establishing a Palestinian state, Barak has not made public his views on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's diplomatic moves, and it seems he is basing his political stature on viewing reality through a pair of binoculars."

"From his testimony to the Winograd Committee, one can conclude that even today Barak considers unilateral withdrawals possible and even desirable if there is no one to talk to. He does not see the 2000 withdrawal from Lebanon as a rash move, but as one necessitated by reality after he had carefully examined the option of coordinating the pullout with Syria. This is presumably also how he views the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. Judging by his past statements on a withdrawal from the West Bank, he evidently views this, too, as a necessity more than a choice - or in his words: 'Life will ultimately bring us to this.'"

"Barak's only response to the diplomatic program being promoted by President Shimon Peres, which was publicized this week, was that Israel should not quit the West Bank until it has developed a defensive system against rockets, which is likely to take several years. Should this caveat torpedo an agreement in principle with the Palestinian government on a state in the West Bank and Gaza, or does it merely define when Israel's military, as opposed to civilian, presence in the West Bank will end, using the model of its withdrawal from the northern West Bank during the disengagement?

Barak must answer these question not after the fact - to the committees that investigate the next war - but to his potential voters, who at the moment see no difference between him and Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu."

"Developing anti-missile systems is only one narrow aspect of national security, and the defense minister ought to understand this. It is also only one narrow aspect of Barak's job as the leader of the Labor Party. A swift agreement to determine Israel's borders is not a gesture to Mahmoud Abbas; it reflects a sober view of the country's diplomatic and societal realities, which can only change for the worse."

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