Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Monday abruptly announced he was quitting politics, injecting new turmoil into the Israeli political system weeks ahead of general elections. s most-decorated soldier 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.
Possible replacements include Vice Premier Moshe Yaalon, a former military chief, and Shaul Mofaz, a former military chief and defense minister, who now serves as chairman of the opposition Kadima Party. s political career was as turbulent as his 36-year military career was dazzling.
The former war hero and military chief of staff blazed into politics on the coattails of his mentor, Yitzhak Rabin, and had been viewed by many as his heir apparent. s most daring hostage rescue operations and raids, Barak was elected prime minister from the centrist Labor Party in 1999 — just four years after retiring from the military.
But Barak returned to politics in 2007, handily recapturing the Labor leadership and replacing civilian Defense Minister Amir Peretz, who led a much-criticized war in Lebanon the previous summer. t want him as their prime minister, and his party, which had led Israel to independence and governed the nation for its first three decades, lost its public appeal. s 120 seats. s ideals by joining forces with a man who at the time did not even recognize the principle of a Palestinian state.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, one of the nation’s most influential and divisive leaders, said Monday he would not run for a Knesset seat in the upcoming election, ending a political and military career that spanned more than three decades.
Barak said he was comfortable with his decision and looked forward to spending more time with his family. “I believe that it is important to make way for fresh faces,’’ said Barak, who in addition to his cumulative seven years as defense minister, also served as prime minister from 1999 into 2001 and as foreign minister. “A turnover in positions of power is a good thing,” he said.
Liberals called Barak a traitor in 2009 for joining Netanyahu’s right-leaning government, a move that led Barak to quit the Labor Party two years later and form his own party.
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