The atmosphere of the approaching September primary election within the Kadima party prompted even Defense Minister and Labor Party Chairman Ehud Barak to break his media silence and hint that Kadima front-runner Tzipi Livni would not be a wise choice to lead the country.
In an interview with Channel 10 TV Sunday evening, Barak said "it is possible to have a prime minister without a security background. The question is what would be wise to do," adding that the country had "seen this deficiency at work two years ago" referring to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's lack of military experience, and how that disadvantage manifested itself in what is widely held as Olmert's faulty handling of the Second Lebanon War in 2006.
"Despite all the military people that sat around the cabinet table, the decisions remained controversial," Barak said of the prime minister's conduct during the 34-day war between Israel and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah. The defense minister said that in his mind the right thing to do now, in the face of security threats and the impending economic recession, would be to form a national unity government. "A country's leadership has a responsibility to make decisions. This is a test I have passed."
Barak said that if the attempt to establish a national unity government failed, general elections should be held.
Speaking about the situation in the Gaza Strip, Barak admitted that even a large-scale Israel Defense Forces invasion would not stop militant attacks on Israel, adding that he would prefer to see the current cease fire between Israel and the Hamas rulers of Gaza remain in place.
Barak has often said that an Israeli invasion is at hand, but in Sunday's interview he indicated that even a large-scale invasion would not stop Hamas rocket attacks. Instead, he said, a seven-week-old Egyptian-mediated truce is effectively halting the barrages.
If Israeli forces did go into Gaza, Barak said, "afterward we would have to achieve a truce, and we would have to deal with the same parties as before."
"Even if Israeli forces stay there two years and destroy the Hamas regime down to the last office and the last activist, in the aftermath [Israel] is controlling another people against their will, and the Palestinian people, when they compare the two, will choose Hamas ... and not those who talk peace," he said, referring to the moderate Fatah, headed by President Mahmoud Abbas.
Hamas overran Gaza last June, expelling forces loyal to Abbas.
Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, withdrawing its military and taking down 21 settlements, expressing the hope at the time that its pullout would end the rocket fire.
However, according to Israeli military figures, more than 6,000 rockets and mortars have been fired from Gaza at Israel since the disengagement.
Barak said the Israel-Hamas truce, which began June 19, has reduced rocket fire from Gaza from hundreds to just a few. He said he hoped the truce would last a year.
Before the June truce, Palestinian militants pelted southern Israel daily, sometimes with dozens of rockets and mortars, disrupting the lives of tens of thousands of Israelis.
Many have clamored for an Israeli invasion to stop the barrages, and Barak frequently announces that such a ground operation will occur in just a matter of time.
In the past, Israel has sent ground troops into Gaza to stop rocket
attacks, but the relief has been temporary. Despite inflicting heavy
casualties and causing severe damage, Israeli forces were able to stop the rocket fire only as long as they were in Gaza.
Barak said the truce was the first time in seven years that the rocket salvos have been silenced.
Israel has blockaded Gaza since the Hamas takeover, citing security, closing crossings and allowing only the minimal humanitarian supplies in. Egypt has closed Rafah, the only Gaza crossing that does not go through Israel.
In another shift, Barak said that the reported strengthening of Hamas through arms smuggling during the truce is not a problem for Israel, though four tons of explosives and several dozen anti-tank rockets have been brought in.
"Everyone knows that when the truce was declared, there were already hundreds of Grad missiles there," he said, referring to rockets that can reach the southern city of Ashkelon, as well as simpler rockets and mortars.
The defense minister also said Israel had a supreme moral and command
responsibility to bring kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit home. "We must do everything possible and appropriate to bring him home. The calm creates the possibility to do so," Barak said.
During the interview, Barak also said that the Second Lebanon War - in effect, carried out to stop Hezbollah armament - had actually strengthened the Lebanon-based militant group.
The defense minister said the the six years prior to the war had actually been some of the quietest on Israel's northern border, despite the growth in Hezbollah's military capabilities.
"[Former prime minister Ariel] Sharon and his leadership were wise not to respond to Hezbollah's strengthening," Barak said. "We went to war unprepared and incorrectly."
Barak also said: "[David] Ben-Gurion said that wars should be avoided or postponed, but if they are forced on us, we must win them unequivocally, on enemy territory and quickly."
Regarding his 1999 negotiations with the Syrians in Shepherdstown, Barak said there was no way to conduct talks on the Middle East "without them being held in a place that will allow for talks without reporting daily to the public."
According to the Labor Party head, former Syrian prime minister Hafez Assad tried to create a situation in which Israel "would accept his preconditions before the talks were launched, as a condition to their beginning."
Barak said he is up-to-date on the ongoing Turkish-brokered talks between Israel and Syria. However, he said that the priorities of the Syria of today are different from those of Israel, and "therefore it is impossible to hold serious negotiations."
Barak went on to say that anyone who thinks it is possible to first agree on the June 4, 1967 lines and only then start negotiating over cutting off ties between Damascus and Tehran, ending support for Hezbollah and establishing an early warning system in the Golan, is living in cloud cuckoo land and "those in the Middle East who live in the clouds and not on the ground end up with broken limbs and not with peace."
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