Salon.com > Ehud Barak

6 chilling testimonies from occupied Palestine

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 14:21:00 +0000

“There is no country on Earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders,” President Barack Obama said at a press conference last week. He drew on this general observation in order to justify Operation Pillar of Defense, Israel’s most recent military campaign in the Gaza Strip. In describing the situation this way, he assumes, like many others, that Gaza is a political entity external and independent of Israel. This is not so. It is true that Israel officially disengaged from the Gaza Strip in August 2005, withdrawing its ground troops and evacuating the Israeli settlements there. But despite the absence of a permanent ground presence, Israel has maintained a crushing control over Gaza from that moment until today.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak suddenly quits politics

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 10:35:00 +0000

JERUSALEM — Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Monday abruptly announced he was quitting politics, shaking up the country’s political system just weeks ahead of general elections.

Barak, a decorated former general and one-time prime minister, said he would stay on in his current post until a new government is formed following the Jan. 22 balloting.

“I didn’t make this decision without hesitating, but I made it wholeheartedly,” he told a hastily arranged news conference, saying he had been wrestling with the decision for weeks.

Barak’s resignation could mean the departure of the most moderating influence on hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is expected to retain his job after the election. Barak, who heads a small centrist faction in parliament, had often served as Netanyahu’s unofficial envoy to Washington in order to smooth over differences with the Obama White House.

Barak, 70, made the surprise announcement even after polls showed his breakaway Independence Party gaining momentum after Israel’s recent military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli defense chief proposes West Bank pullout

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 11:37:00 +0000

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s defense minister is calling for a unilateral pullout from most of the West Bank if peace efforts with the Palestinians remain stalled.

Ehud Barak calls for uprooting dozens of settlements but says Israel would keep major settlement blocs, mostly near the frontiers of Israel proper, and maintain a military presence in an area along the border with Jordan.

His remarks came in an interview published on Monday in the Israel Hayom newspaper.

He says it would be preferable to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians but after four years of deadlock, he says Israel must take “practical steps.”

The Palestinians reject Israeli moves. They seek all of the West Bank under a negotiated agreement.

Barak’s proposal is also likely to face heavy opposition from Israeli hardliners.