Facing Election Defeat, Barak Quit Before Vote

Ehud Barak understood that he had no chance of crossing the electoral threshold in the January election so instead of conducting a campaign that would end in public humiliation and debts, he decided to cut his losses and forgo contending as the head of the Atzmaut party.

If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants him as defense minister in his next government, he will have to name him as a “professional appointment.” And if the two of them decide during the three months or so left in their current tenures to attack Iran – as Barak seemed to hint in Monday’s announcement when he declared “I promise you there will be lots of security challenges,” it would be a thunderous end to a stormy political career that was full of reverses and positioned him as “the man everyone loved to hate.”

For more, go to Haaretz.com