BICOM

Israeli Minister of Defence Ehud Barak made the surprise announcement this morning that he will not run in the forthcoming elections, scheduled for January 22, and he will resign from the post of Minister Defence in around three months when a new government is formed.

Barak’s ‘Atzmaut’ (Independence) party, which was formed after he split from the Labour party at the beginning of 2011, was on the borderline of reaching the two per cent threshold required to enter the Knesset in recent polls.

Barak, who turned 70 last February, had served in the post of Minister of Defence since 2007, and took a share of the credit for the rehabilitation of the IDF after the shortcomings of Israel’s military performance in the Second Lebanon War. Barak served as Prime Minister from 1999 to 2001, and as Chief of Staff of the IDF in the early 1990s. Having served as the commander of Israel’s most elite commando unit, he is the most decorated soldier in Israel’s history.

Alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Barak has been one of the foremost advocates of military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities if diplomacy fails to bring a halt to Iran’s nuclear programme in the near future. He has also recently called for Israel to unilaterally withdraw from parts of the West Bank if no agreement can be reached with the Palestinians.

He said in the press conference that he hopes now to give more time to his family.