Netanyahu and Barak defuse reported tension

By Mati Tuchfeld/Israel Hayom/JNS.org

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak in March 2011, with Netanyahu holding an Iranian instruction manual for the C-704 anti-ship missile. Credit: IDF

Defusing the tension that had recently surrounded their relationship, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak released a joint statement on Oct. 6 after a long meeting, saying that they “have agreed to continue cooperating on the security challenges Israel faces.”

Barak “is in agreement with the prime minister on all matters relating to Israel’s response to the Iranian threat, as well as managing Israel’s relationship with the United States, under the prime minister’s leadership.”

With the backdrop of the possibility of early elections in Israel, unprecedented tension had been reported between Netanyahu and Barak.

Netanyahu on Oct. 3 accused Barak of “working to undermine” him and straying from official government policy, telling his close associates that he “no longer has trust in Barak.” The prime minister said that on the defense chief’s recent trip to the United States, Barak offered himself as a “moderate and responsible alternative” to Netanyahu and

criticized Netanyahu’s “radical and unrealistic policies.” Barak was trying to drive a wedge between the prime minister and the American government, Israel’s Channel 2 reported.

Additionally, according to Israel Radio, Netanyahu harshly criticized Barak during a closed-door conversation with Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz on Oct. 2. During the meeting, Steinitz said the defense minister would act against the prime minister if he decided it was politically advantageous for him. This statement prompted Netanyahu’s comments about Barak.

“[Barak] traveled to the U.S. to stoke the dispute between us and Obama in order to come off as the savior and the moderate, the mediator between the sides,” Netanyahu was reported to have said.

However, a Barak associate said Oct. 3 that the defense minister “was dispatched to the United States at the behest of the government, and duly represented the coalition; Barak heaped praise on Netanyahu at every high level meeting with administration officials during the trip, just like he has done so over the past several years.”

Netanyahu confidants said Barak has decided to separate himself from the prime minister due to electoral considerations. Barak is hoping that the Independence Party, which he founded in 2011 after he left Labor, will earn enough votes in the next elections to surpass the threshold required to receive seats in the Knesset.

“For a time, Barak tried to play a double game, as he thought Netanyahu would reserve the position of defense minister for him,” the Netanyahu confidants said. “But when he

understood that this would not happen, he began to attack the prime minister.”

Finance Ministry officials said Steinitz has been cautioning Netanyahu about Barak for months.

“[Barak] is the only person holding up the passing of the budget formulated by Netanyahu and Steinitz, because it requires a four billion shekel cut to the defense budget,” a Finance Ministry official said. “Without the support of the Independence Party, it will be impossible to pass the budget in the Knesset.”

In response, Barak’s office said that Barak had not changed his views on political, economic and military matters, that until now the basis for close cooperation between him and Netanyahu was their agreement to disagree on a variety of issues, and that the only change was Netanyahu’s reaction. “It is no secret that in closed government discussion rooms, and occasionally in public, Ehud Barak has positions that are different from most other members of the government, including the prime minister, on issues such as the

Palestinians, socio-economic affairs and the relationship with the U.S.,” Barak’s office said.

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