Jan 24, 2011

Labor Pains

Jim FletcherBy Jim Fletcher
Prophecy Matters

The news that Ehud Barak has quit the Labor Party is apparently good news for Israel. The 68-year-old former prime minister — now defense minister in the government of Benjamin Netanyahu — can hopefully avoid the fate of the aged Shimon Peres.

Peres, who has served in seemingly every high-profile political job in Israel, still clings to the myths of Oslo. As one of the architects of the Trojan Horse known as the Peace Process, Peres is somewhat of an enigma.

Like most Israelis, the two men are descendants of Holocaust victims. Both sets of Barak’s grandparents were murdered in Europe (his maternal grandparents perished at Treblinka), while Peres’ grandfather, Rabbi Zvi Meltzer, was burnt alive in a Polish synagogue.

Israel is still traumatized by the satanic Holocaust. I frankly think gentiles can’t understand that, but we can respect it.

What doesn’t make sense at all is why such men would help resurrect a fiend like Yasser Arafat, who in 1989 was just another criminal hiding out in Tunisia. European leftists had been influencing Peres for quite some time, and just after the first Gulf War, it was decided by the international community that it was time to begin laying the groundwork for establishing a Palestinian state. Peres advanced the cause mightily, and though a generation behind, Barak was prepared in 2000 to “give away the farm,” as they say.

In this case, he was willing to give-in to almost all the alleged Palestinian demands. However, Arafat showed his true colors — much to the astonishment of Bill Clinton — by walking away from the deal at Camp David.

Peres came to believe the clever lie that lifting the Palestinians out of their undesirable economic condition would compel them to like Jews. The columnist Charles Krauthammer penned a hilarious line by referring to this as Peres’ “Maginot Line of Five-Star Hotels.” I leave it to you to research the meaning of the Maginot Line.

The Arabs of course have always been consistent. Their goal then, now, and always has been to launch and maintain a terror war, at the end of which they want the Jews to disappear.

One can assume that Peres has perhaps mellowed with advanced age (he’s 87), but it’s doubtful he will ever repudiate the disastrous Oslo Accords.

Barak, though ... has potential.

There is a great photo of a young Barak, commander of the elite Israeli counter-terrorism unit, Sayaret Matkal, as he stands on the wing of a Sabena airliner in 1972. It seems that terrorists had hijacked the plane, and Barak’s merry band of warriors posed as crewmen, then stormed the plane and shot it out with the PLO.

Netanyahu was under Barak’s command that day, and was wounded.

Such combat experience no doubt bonds men, despite past youthful political ambitions. In 1999, Barak defeated Netanyahu for the prime minister’s seat, and his arrogance was something to behold.

A mere two years later, he was staggered politically, no doubt bewildered by the cold hatred of the Arabs, and he went into a short political exile while Ariel Sharon took over.

Today, Netanyahu is the chief, and Barak serves in the all-important Defense Minister’s office. The two understand one thing: Israel is under an existential threat; everything else takes a back seat, including personal ambition.

One wonders if Barak, at least in part in deciding to leave the ultra-left Labor, thought back to that day in 1972, when he and his men were young and full of life. Now almost 70, and facing dangers all around, may the Lord he doesn’t acknowledge continue to watch over him and his people.


Related Links


Barak’s maneuver looks like a win-win situation - The Jerusalem Post
Shimon Peres in mourning after wife passes away - Israel Today
Israel as the Banana Republic - BPB (Caroline Glick)
Israeli official confirms interim Palestinian state plan - Washington Times
Netanyahu praises Turkel commission’s report - The Jerusalem Post