Profile: Ehud Barak
Israel’s defence minister is the country’s most decorated soldier and has close ties to the prime minister.
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| Barak has repeatedly said “Israel’s security” is his top most concern [AFP] |
Ehud Barak, Israel’s minister of defence, began his career in the Israeli army at the age of 17.
He quickly rose through the ranks to become the commander of an elite commando unit which was tasked with assassinating Palestinians who had kidnapped Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympics.
In 1991, Barak served as the 14th chief of general staff of the Israeli army and was later appointed lieutenant-general, the highest rank in the Israeli military.
He began his political career in 1995, first serving as the interior minister between July and November of that year, and then as minister of foreign affairs from November 1995 to June 1996.
In 1996 he won the Labor party leadership and served as a member of the Knesset foreign affairs and defence committees.
He was elected as the 10th prime minister of Israel in 1999 and served in that post until 2001. During that time, he ordered the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from southern Lebanon, effectively ending a 22-year occupation.
Failed summit
The July 2000 Camp David summit between Barak, Yasser Arafat, the then Palestinian president, and Bill Clinton, the former US president, briefly raised hopes of a final resolution to the Middle East conflict.
However, the talks collapsed after Arafat refused to accept a proposal drafted by US and Israeli negotiators.
Barak accused Arafat of having no real intention of accepting a peace deal.
But the Palestinians said Barak was to be blamed, since he offered to withdraw from far less territory in the West Bank than Israel had earlier pledged.
Any hopes of finding a middle ground were dashed when the Palestinians launched what would come to be called the second intifada (uprising) after Ariel Sharon, the Israeli housing minister and Likud party leader, entered the al-Masjid al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem.
In March 2001, Barak lost to Sharon in Israeli elections.
Tough stand
After his election loss, Barak dropped out of politics until 2005, when he returned to contest for the leadership of the Labor party.
After several unsuccessful bids, Barak again became the Labor chief in June 2007.
He then stood as Labour’s candidate in the 2009 election for prime minister but lost to Benyamin Netanyahu, the Likud leader.
Barak has repeatedly said “Israel’s security” is his top most concern.
He faced criticism for bringing the left-leaning Labour into Binyamin Netanyahu’s conservative cabinet after the last election, a move that granted him a political future as defence minister
During Israel’s 2008/2009 war on Gaza, Barak said the country was engaged in a “war to the bitter end” with Hamas which would continue and even intensify until it had achieved its objective.
Addressing a special session of the Israeli parliament, he said the offensive aimed to stop Hamas’ “hostile actions”.
“This operation will expand and deepen as much as needed.
“We went to war to deal a heavy blow to Hamas, to change the situation in the south,” he said.
In January 2011 Barak announced that he had left the Labour party to form a new party called “Independence”.
He had then been under growing criticism from leading Labor members for staying in the government as peace talks with the Palestinians had frozen.