Sunday, February 03, 2008

Grim Reactions to Labor's Decision to Stay in Olmert Government

Hana Levi Julian

The Opposition parties were quick to respond to Sunday’s announcement by Defense Minister and Labor Party Chairman Ehud Barak to stay in the Olmert government, thereby preventing the collapse of the Olmert coalition.“Just like Olmert refuses to take responsibility for the war’s failings, so too does Barak refuse to fulfill his clear, unambiguous commitments, Steinitz pointedly responded. “It seems leadership is no longer leadership, that a promise is no longer a promise.”

Barak rode to victory in party primaries for the chairmanship last June on a vow to pull Labor out of the coalition, possibly forcing new elections, if Prime Minister Ehud Olmert did not resign following release of the Winograd Report.

Barak's decision to break that promise was met with fierce condemnation.

Likud Knesset Member, Yuli Edelstein charged that Barak bore responsibility for creating the situation that led to the Second Lebanon War in the first place. Six years prior to the war, then-Prime Minister Barak ordered Israel’s hasty retreat from the security zone maintained by the IDF in southern Lebanon.

Barak’s decision in May 2000 left a vacuum that provided an opportunity for the Hizbullah terrorist organization to rebuild its infrastructure and re-arm to levels greater than those with which they battled the IDF in 1982.

“After all,” said Edelstein, “the first kidnapping of IDF soldiers (in Lebanon) occurred while [Barak] was Prime Minister. That incident left him completely dumbfounded; he failed even to fight Hizbullah. Now he prefers to avoid taking responsibility in order to cling to his position, just like the rest of his colleagues in this government.”

Another opposition Knesset Member, National Religious Party (NRP) head Zevulun Orlev, said Barak’s decision dragged Israel’s political morality to new lows. Also the head of the parliamentary Lobby to Implement Winograd group, Orlev added that Barak has broken a number of explicit commitments with one miserable decision.

The HaTikva Party also weighed in with similar sentiments saying that Barak missed the opportunity to make a significant contribution to the nation’s security by ending the Olmert government and bringing about new elections.

“Ehud Barak has turned the Labor Party into Ehud Olmert’s tail,” read the HaTikva party statement. “Both of them are concerned only with avoiding responsibility and political survival, rather than with national security."

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