In shocker, Israel's Barak quits politics

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By AMY TEIBEL

ERUSALEM (AP) - 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.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20121126/DA2PJOK03.html

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In this Monday Jan. 17, 2011 file photo, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak attends a press conference in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak shook up the Israeli political system Monday with the abrupt announcement that he is quitting politics and will not run in general elections in January. The defense minister made the surprise announcement even after polls showed his breakaway Independence Party gaining momentum after Israel's recent military offensive in the Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File)

[Franker65]

1. Maybe he's just burned out

I'm a bit surprised but if its for family reasons, its totally understandable.

[SkyDaddy7]

2. He probably is sick of

What the hawks are doing & wants nothing to do with being seen as part of the problem. I wish the Israeli people would get rid of the hawks and put folks in charge who will work with Obama on getting a true & lasting peace deal. One can dream.

[iandhr]

5. He is a hawk he was a big cheer leader for bombing Iran

[Comrade_McKenzie]

3. After what Israel did in Gaza, can't blame him. nt

[azurnoir]

7. He is currently the Israeli Minister of Defense

he supported the Gaza operation, my reading the mood of the Israeli public is that the cease fire is seen as a capitulation to US demands, to be more to the point capitulation to Barak Obama, who the Israeli public did not want to see re-elected

eta unless of course that is what you meant

[leveymg]

4. So, now Israel moves even further toward the Right and gets even more aggressive?

Comforting thought.

[azurnoir]

6. To be very blunt he's quitting rather than lose

Barak's party Atzmaut is only carrying 3.4% of the vote

http://972mag.com/polls/

the rightist parties are carrying the majority of the Israeli vote

[JI7]

11. isn't his position appointed ? he was serving under Bibi

[azurnoir]

13. There are elections coming up 1/22/2013

and his party Atzmaut is at 3.4% in Israeli polls

[JI7]

15. but what has that got to do with his resigning ?

because i assume the position he holds is appointed.

[azurnoir]

17. I was under the impression he was running for office either as PM or MK

[bemildred]

8. Used and tossed aside, like an old glove. nt

[azurnoir]

14. poor Ehud

but that picture of him in the OP somehow I could see Hans Holbein really doing things with that, well at least back in the olden days

[bemildred]

23. What's he doing with his hands anyway? nt

[geek tragedy]

9. Bibi's hood ornament apparently was dissatisfied.

Oh well. Time for Israel to admit that its goal is apartheid and have an honest debate.

[byeya]

10. Israel was conceived as an apartheid state with Jews as the only full citizens. Christians and

Muslims who are citizens of Israel don't have the same rights as Jews.
To create a Jewish state hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were ethnically cleansed and they now live in refugee camps in neighboring countires or elsewhere throughout the world.

[former9thward]

16. What rights do Christians and Muslims not have?

Your 'history' of the Palestinians is a complete re-write of what actually happened. What kook websites do you get your 'information' from?

[azurnoir]

18. The history that says between 700,000 and 900,000 Palewstinians that fled

the fighting out of the fear sown by atrocities such as the Deir Yassin massacre purpatrated by Israeli forces were not allowed to return to their homes and subsequently many of their former villages were either bulldozed or renamed that 'kooky' history

[former9thward]

20. That is your hate-Israel 'history', not real world history.

The day Israel was created Palestinians were told to flee their homes by the Arab armies so they they could kill everyone in sight and drive the Jews into the sea. The Palestinians bought into that and wound up on the losing side of history. The Arab states they fled to treated them like shit from that day to the present. Have you ever been to a Palestinian refugee camp? I have in both Lebanon and Jordan. The Arab states treat them like 3rd class non-citizens.

[azurnoir]

21. No I present the simple fact you OtOH seem to present

Israeli propaganda justifying the dispossession of hundreds of thousands of human beings and then throwing in the frequently heard complaint that Arabs did solve Israels Palestinian problem for it, but when your complaining about how Arabs treat Palestinian refugees shall we take a little peeky poo at how Israel is handling Black African refugees?

[RedFury]

22. Please...

...don't bring such "minor" details into this conversation. Israel is close to perfect, dontcha know?

I mean, who'd dare criticize this but an anti-Semite?: In shunning African refugees, Israel ignores Exodus' call not to 'oppress the stranger'

[Alamuti Lotus]

12. He finally got tired of having people killed for a living?

I suppose that makes sense as he has been doing that for such a long time, since his bad old days of dressing up like a woman to commit acts of terrorism in other countries.

[oberliner]

24. "dressing up like a woman to commit acts of terrorism in other countries..."

Fascinating way to characterize those events.

Were the US forces who killed Osama Bin Laden also committing acts of terrorism in other countries?

[Alamuti Lotus]

25. blowing up buildings and having large fire-fights simultaneously in several cities..

if Israeli commando teams weren't the shooters, how else would you describe that so-called "Spring of Youth"?! I realize it was Israeli Mossad and IDF involved, so the rules are changed (e.g., there are none, aside from the assumed infallability of the aggressor).. Kamal Nasir was a writer, he didn't fire a gun or plan any resistance operations--but they targeted and killed him anyway and dozens of other people when the Israeli fighters snuck in to residential buildings in Beirut and other cities, opened fire and blew up buildings, with some of the Israelis dressed up like women and others as civilians.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

19. interesting

[aquart]

26. What's his doctor say?