Israeli parties slam Barak decision

Israeli Parties officials slammed labor party chairman Ehud Barak for failing to fulfill his promise to leave the coalition and said the party could lose public support by supporting Ehud Olmert in the face of the Winograd Report.

 

Israeli labor official MK Shelly Yechimovitch said she is "sorry" about the decision, and said Barak's decision would have negative repercussions on the Labor Party.

 

Labor Party Secretary Eitan Cabel said Barak squandered a chance to show leadership. "I'm sorry to say he failed to do that. The Labor Party may well suffer badly for that decision."

 

Another, Danny Yatom, slammed Barak and Olmert together, saying he was "disappointed" that Barak failed to force Olmert to "make a decision." "In any normal, moral country, Olmert would have resigned in light of the report, or the Labor Party would have created a situation where he would have been forced to do so," said Yatom.

 

MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud) said Sunday that Ehud Barak bears responsibility for creating the situation that led to the 2006 Second Lebanon War. Barak, a former army chief of staff, was the prime minister, who ordered Israel's hasty retreat from the South Lebanon security zone in May, 2000. 

 

"After all," said Edelstein, "the first kidnapping of army troop (by Lebanese gruops) occurred while he (Barak) was prime minister. That incident left him completely dumbfounded; he failed even to fight Hezbollah. Now, he prefers to avoid taking responsibility in order to cling to his position, just like the rest of his colleagues in this government."

 

Zionists' Reserve Soldiers Forum issued a statement Sunday, responding to war Minister Ehud Barak's announcement about staying in the coalition: "Politics has defeated the county. We are witnessing an alliance of the failed, the cynics and those hungry for (political) survival.

 

"Unfortunately, is seems turning ones back on responsibility is an admissions requirement for a ministerial position. All we can do is promise to fight for a change in Israeli norms. We call on the Israeli public to attend our protest, at the Knesset, on Monday night."

 

Meretz-Yahad Chairman Beilin also said: "Barak's decision is as shaming as it is predictable. This was a grave mistake – Barak relinquished his chance to push for the prime minister's replacement."

 

Barak, added Beilin "had sanctioned Olmert as prime minister, despite Winograd's contingent that he cannot serve as one."

 

War minister Ehud Barak called a press conference Sunday to announce he will not be leaving the coalition following the publication of the final Winograd report, probing the regime's defeat in the 2006 war against Lebanon.