A TRAGIC HERO: THE DECLINE AND FALL OF EHUD BARAK

Year 2001, Volume: 6 Issue: 2, 0 - 0, 01.07.2001

Dov Waxman

Abstract

Dov Waxman is a Ph.D. candidate in International Relations and Middle East Studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. He was a visiting fellow at the Moshe Dayan Centre for Middle Eastern and African Studies, Tel Aviv University, from 1999 to 2000. One cannot help but feel sorry for Israel's former Prime Minister, Ehud Barak. He has suffered a string of humiliating rejections, first from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, then from the Israeli electorate, and finally from his own political party. The spectacle of Mr Barak's political downfall has been truly dazzling with its many twists and turns and moments of hope quickly turning to despair. His term in office was the shortest of any Israeli prime minister and his electoral defeat at the hands of the Likud's hawkish Ariel Sharon - a man conventional political wisdom in Israel long considered to be unelectable - was the most resounding in Israel's entire political history. It was not just the huge size of the margin a twenty six percent gap by which Mr Sharon defeated Mr Barak in the election for prime minister on 6 February 2001, but what lay behind it that really testifies to Mr Barak's political failure. Above all, the election result reflected an overwhelming rejection by Israelis virtually across the entire political spectrum of Mr Barak rather than an endorsement of Mr Sharon. For once, the Israeli public, so often fractious and divided, appeared to speak in one loud and clear voice, declaring: "Enough of Barak!" The one thing about which it seems Israel's political left and right are in consensus is their abhorrence towards Mr Barak. Together they have vilified him and cast him out into the political wilderness. The few political allies he has left now resemble the steadfast and dedicated followers of a sports team with no hope of victory, displaying a loyalty as admirable as it is irrational. And in the midst of all this adversity, Mr Barak himself continues inanely grinning and reaffirming to anyone who will listen that he made no mistakes and has no regrets.1 Surely, he must have lost touch with reality.