Ehud Barak’s Theater of the Absurd
There was no need to endanger Israeli troops.
How could Ehud Barak not see the looming disaster? Stopping a large Gaza-bound ship could have been carried out below the waterline, or by an assault on the bridge, using smoke bombs and tear gas to take control. Dropping individual soldiers into a mob of hostile people lacks reason.
The confrontation could have been handled with moach (brains) rather than koach (brawn). But that’s not Barak’s way: his history of misusing power and his lack of leadership goes back to the Yom Kippur War, at the least.
In 1973, Barak botched a rescue operation during the “Chinese Farm” battle near the Suez Canal and failed to rescue soldiers under the command of General Yitzhak Mordechai.
In 1982, during Operation Peace for Galilee — in which Israel attacked PLO and terrorist groups in Lebanon — Barak commanded the IDF in the eastern region of South Lebanon. He ordered an attack at Sultan Yakoub, in which Israeli soldiers were ambushed by Syrian army commandos and PLO guerilla units. Overpowered and suffering heavy losses, the IDF unit repeatedly begged for help to rescue them. Barak failed to respond. In that battle, 23 IDF soldiers were killed and three were captured: Zachary Baumel, Zvi Feldman, and Yehuda Katz. Missing in action, their fate is still unknown.
Five years later, when the “first intifada” broke out, Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin assigned Ehud Barak, Amram Mitzna, and Dan Shomron — whose political views trumped military necessity — to quell the rebellion. They failed miserably. This not only encouraged Palestinian terrorists, especially Fatah and Hamas, but led to the PLO’s rehabilitation and the disastrous Oslo Accords in 1993, which Barak implemented.
According to Reuven Pedatzur, writing in Haaretz on November 5, 2000:
On the eve of the Gulf War [1990], a decision to scuttle the project [to purchase submarines] was taken at the IDF General Staff: that is, to leave the navy without any submarines at all. Only the stricken conscience of Helmut Kohl, the German chancellor, after the extent of German aid to the Iraqis became known, led to the decision to fund the submarines. Thus, it was German money that saved the submarine project. …
The General Staff’s decision is cause for concern because all those who took part in the discussion knew very well, based on intelligence estimates, that within a small number of years Israel would be threatened by nuclear weapons. It is difficult to fathom how those who are supposed to be familiar with and to understand strategic thinking in the modern era decided to give up the strategic potential inherent in submarines.
[The] person who led the opposition to building the submarines in that discussion, and the person whose position prevailed in the end, was none other than the person who served at the time as deputy chief of staff, Ehud Barak.
In 1992, during a training exercise at the Tze’elim base, a missile hit a unit by mistake, killing five soldiers and seriously wounding six more. Watching this tragedy, Barak did nothing to help and refused to allow his helicopter to be used in the rescue operation. He was severely criticized for his behavior.
As prime minister in 1999, Barak gave away the entire gas and oil fields off the Gaza coast to the PA … for nothing, and without conditions. He never explained his decision.
You are asking the same question as probably 90% of Israelis. Why is Barak Minister of Defense? Why is he in ANY position of authority? As soon as Netanyahu announced that Ehud Barak & Labour had joined his coalition, my heart sank. I think this is perhaps the best example of everything that is wrong with our country’s political system, worse even than a jerk like Shimon Peres as president. The biggest threat to our country is from our own politicians.
OK about Barak, but why such words on Shimon Peres, I think he is an excellent president? Barak should go!
To Adina Kutnicki.
I can’t wait to see your comment.
Terry, I really can’t add anything of special substance to this incisive analysis.The only thing I want to reiterate-as I stated in a previous post-is that Barak has a laser focused leftist agenda, an agenda that by its face endangers our soldiers and civilians alike.
Once again, Barak, bought and paid for by the Israeli left & Washington power brokers, seeks the division of Jerusalem and the destruction of Judea and Samaria. This is VERY clear.To wit, disasters-in-the-making have to happen, all in order for the world to pounce, and pounce VERY hard.Serial bungling of military missions-with the ‘victims’ of the left, left bloodied and battered-is a good battering ram to hammer us with.
Now, if THAT means that Jewish soldiers have to be ‘sacrificed’, then so be it. Peres, our President of ‘high peaceness’, coined the phrase,’sacrifices for peace’. Who precisely was he referring to?Hint:NOT the Arabs!!
Barak, Peres, two sides of the same delusional, leftist, peace fantasist coin.The fact that Barak is the ultimate, craven opportunist makes him even more dangerous to our health.
Adina, reading this article made my blood boil. You know, I made aliyah from an Arab country only five yrs ago. I have to admit that I knew little about Israel since the only sources of information I had was the gov’t. controlled media & more recently, CNN & the BBC or various French newspapers like Le Monde, hardly pro-Israel, to put it mildly. Being somewhat conservative, I never bothered with the internet.
After five yrs in Israel, I am in a state of shock at our politics & our politicians. If someone had told me the reality of politics here, I wouldn’t have believed it.
Our country, our society, has been poisoned by Leftism. I can only pray that we somehow recuperate from this debilitating mental disease.
Our experience should be a lesson to Americans reading this – if you don’t get rid of crazy Leftists like Obama, they will destroy your country.
Terry, all is not lost, we just have to wait out, be able to survive the entrenched mob which passes itself off as ‘leadership’. Waiting in the wings are some up and comers, particularly MK Danon, a stalwart Zionist and a clear thinker.
There are also some very active Zionists, real patriots, who are gearing up to enter the political arena, most of them from the ‘settlements’.
The Jews as a whole here-not in the diaspora-are a hearty lot, most are patriotic, with a small percent who are deluded leftists.However, they have very few children so they know that they are on a downward spiral, hence, they always bandy about the demographic bogeyman.
IF we come out on top of the war looming ahead, (either we pre-empt or we will not survive here)it is obvious that the left will be dead and buried for good-figuratively speaking. Why? Because everyone will finally know that the peace fantasists brought us Hizbullah, Hamas and the fifth column within.’Land for peace’ will be officially dead, and the leadership will never be the same-and THAT is a good thing!
Adina, I admire your optimism. Quite frankly, our political system has only been successful at producing party hacks. It’s very disappointing, to say the least.
Shavua Tov.
All these actions taken by Israel are like picking nickels out of s**t. Israel will never have peace until it uses the threat of throwing it’s nuclear weight around. Rattle your nuclear sabers Israel, it’s the only thing the world understands.
An incisive and informative article by Moshe Dann; we’ve come to expect this kind of performance from him. And thanks for the valuable contributions, Adina and Terry. I had been wondering about Barak for some time and the flotilla fiasco almost sealed my negative opinion about him. After reading Moshe Dann and the referred to comments, I am convinced that he is our enemy. The question then becomes: What’s wrong with Bibi’s judgement? And will a new, tougher-minded and strategically apt generation of politicians come on board before it’s too late?
It is not important that I of course do agree completely with Moshe Dan. Those same memories plague me too. What does matter is that the overwhelming majority of Israeli’s did not want this particular minister of Defense from this particular political party. What’s left of the left could never form a coalition, could never come into power.
So it seemed.
And, what do you know, there he was again, amazingly soon, there was Ehud Barak again. After all those deadly failures again. How that is possible? Politics. Mistaken, even fatal politics. I am still hoping for mass demonstrations calling for some pity on the good Israeli people who deserve so much better than this Defense minister who proved to us all that he cannot be relied upon with the life of our sons. The tremendous heartbreak the man has caused. If only I think of Yona Baumel,z.l. How many hearts did Ehud break? Let the people of Israel scream loudly:”to much already, Ehud go home. We did not vote for you”.
my god Mr. Dann! how dare you critizise a very high ranking Israeli offical!!! I am shocked! i thought any jew that critizised Israel is called a self hating Jew!!! I did not think the let Jew haters write blob on this site!! shocking!!!
Load tubes one and two! Fire torpedo from # 1. Fire Barak from #2.
Both problems solved!
Re “IF we come out on top of the war looming ahead, (either we pre-empt or we will not survive here)it is obvious that the left will be dead and buried for good-figuratively speaking.”
1. the left should “be dead and buried” before active hostilities commence IN ORDER to “come out on top of the war looming ahead”.
2. It is very big IF with 2 present baraks (only one is yours).
As an outsider looking in, Barak’s continued participation at the highest level of the Israeli government is sad.
I can still picture his ridiculous palling around with Yasser Arafat as they exited the White House Rose Garden when they met with Clinton. I could see right then he was a self-important buffoon. I knew he was a brave soldier, but I did not know of his command errors until this article. It seems he has quite a history of bad judgment.
Netanyahu shows weakness.
ADDING BARAK DID NOT HELP HIM WITH OBAMA OR THE WORLD.
Ultimately Israel must protect itsel ALONE.
As Moshe DANN COGENTLY POINTS OUT IT MUST BE DONE without barak.
Any businessperson who hires or fires employees knows that the best predictor of an employee’s future performance is his past performance. Netanyahu must fire Barak. What would enable him to do this?
this is a terrific web site that has published a terrific, informative article, that has positioned itself as an exellent resource for the well informed !
GO PAJAMAS !~!
Why is Barak in any position at all ?
I HAVE THE ANSWER !
he enjoys “delegating the killing to the malable & willing, but be sure to have the billing when the news gets around !”
See:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeDDb5VYwbY
MOST PROMINENT IS THE FACT THAT SELF SERVING POWER MONGERS; SUCH AS natanyahu FIND HIM “MALLEABLE & WILLING” !
He was a perfect “appointee” for natanyahu !
That’s my sense about it and I’m sticking by it !
What doees that mean ?
Do you want me to self edit ?
What’s the problem with this ?:
this is a terrific web site that has published a terrific, informative article, that has positioned itself as an exellent resource for the well informed !