Ehud Barak Is Back In Politics – And Says He Can Defeat Netanyahu
Ehud Barak, former Prime Minister of Israel, at the Hay Festival on May 27, 2018 in Hay-on-Wye, Wales. Image by David Levenson/Getty Images
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak announced Wednesday that he is forming a new political party.
At an evening news conference, Barak said he rushed to make the announcement to thwart Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to cancel the Sept. 17 election.
“Netanyahu has reached the end” of his political career,” Barak said. “The Netanyahu regime must be felled.”
“Bibi, this is your last chance to go home of your own volition,” he said, using Netanyahu’s nickname.
Barak, who did not say what the name of his new party would be, was joined for his announcement by former army chief of staff Yair Golan and Kobi Richter, co-founder of Medinol and a peace activist. He reportedly plans to form a coalition with the Labor and Meretz parties.
Barak, 77, became prime minister in 1999, defeating Netanyahu following his first term. Prior to entering politics, he was chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces. He retired from politics in 2001 after his defeat to Ariel Sharon’s Likud party.
In 2005, Barak re-entered politics with Labor and went on to serve as defense minister from 2007 to 2013, including four years when Netanyahu was prime minister. He retired again from politics in 2013. He is chairman of medical cannabis company InterCure Ltd.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
