Mubarak is Not the Only Barak That Should Go - Israeli Defence Minister Should Leave

The British politician Enoch Powel famously said that ” All political careers end in failure”.  In my opinion, that tends to because the vast majority of politicians, particularly those in power; don’t know when to quit.

Can anyone tell me the last time, our esteemed Defense Minister, Ehud Barak made a right decision.  For the life of me I am struggling to think of one in the recent past.  Surely the country has the right to expect the man ultimately responsible for security of the state and the safety of its citizens; to display sound judgement in the prosecution of his sworn duty. 

Apparently not. With an ego the size of the demonstrations in Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt and Jordan combined, our self obsessed and perhaps now delusional defense minister is too busy managing his personal feuds and looking after what he sees as his own interests; to take decisions which put the interests of the country ahead of his own prejudice and ongoing fight for political survival.

Having seen his pet candidate for Chief of Staff shot down in flames due to the at best, dubious appropriation of state land adjoining his home on Moshav Amikam, you might think that a grown up, responsible, senior politician would look to the safe option, perhaps to ensure continuity, maybe just keep the army in safe hands while he and his buddy the Prime Minister (don’t get me started on him) look to appoint a new and this time acceptable Chief of Staff. 

But you would be wrong.  Barak prefers to appoint a “temporary” Chief of Staff” for a period of sixty days, rather than have his bitter enemy and soon to be political rival (give or take three years), current Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi; spend another sixty days on the job. It’s not that his stop-gap candidate, newly appointed Deputy Chief of Staff, General Yair Naveh is free of controversy or for that matter that Barak thinks he is capable of the job, or he would have given it to him properly.  No it’s just that like a spoilt child, Ehud “doesn’t want to play with Gabi any more”. 

Treating the IDF as his own personal train set, Barak is intent on having his own way despite the potential cost to the IDF and the country as a whole.  When interviewed about the current sad state of affairs in the military, Barak suggested that there were things that we do not know and that he could not talk about in regard to Ashkenazi and to add insult to injury, in an almost laughable self-righteous manner Barak stated that he took his decision in order to protect the integrity of the IDF. 

Yeh, just as he protected the integrity of the labour party, which he led into the abyss until jumping ship and whoring himself to the right-wing coalition government.

Regrettably, despite his long and distinguished record in the defense Israel, Ehud Barak and his ego have now become a liability and possible danger to the security of this country.  It is time for him to go and if he won’t go of his own volition then we should get out onto the streets and force him to do so. 

In regard to the now vacant position of Head Soldier in the country, one can only hope that the powers that be see sense and force the current Minister of Defense to appoint one of either Messrs Eizenkot or Ganz, the two candidates he so steadfastly fought against in favour of the now defunct General (Res) Galant. 

The sooner this is done, the sooner the integrity of the IDF, which Barak has only manged to undermine with his poor judgement and political infighting; can be restored and the army can get on with defending the country. 

Better still, once we have a dependable Chief of Staff, we can then look to replace the Defense Minister… and tell Ehud Barak that it is time to go. Amen to that.