Barak’s decision to join Netanyahu government may have been prescient

By Rabbi Dow Marmur

JERUSALEM–When Ehud Barak, the elected leader of Israel’s Labour Party, joined the Netanyahu government early this year as Minister of Defense, it was said in many quarters that he’d destroy the party that had already been greatly diminished in the election. The fact that several members of his Knesset faction rebelled against him and still are on the periphery strengthened the argument. Barak’s action was difficult to fathom. As a former Chief of Staff and a highly decorated soldier, often described as one of the most intelligent men in the country, it seemed surprising that he should have joined a government that was as far from Labour as one could be.

In retrospect he may have known something others found out much later.

Back in Israel now and trying to reconnect to what’s going on here, I’m beginning to think that Barak’s move, though perhaps bad for the party may have been good for the country. It may be that more than any other Israeli politician he can stand up to the settlers whose growing radicalization constitutes a mounting threat to the Jewish state.

Two indicators come to mind: First, political commentators I’ve heard and read in the last couple of days suggest that without Barak,  Netanyahu would have never agreed to a settlement freeze. Even if his right-wing coalition partners stayed in the government, the danger of something resembling a civil war, perhaps with open mutiny from some military units, might have inhibited him from yielding to pressure from the other Barack (Obama).

But this Barak (Ehud) being so deeply rooted in the Israel Defense Forces and now politically responsible for it, is said to have urged and re-assured the Prime Minister. Second, in response to the call by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, in charge of a Hesder Yeshiva (an institution favored by settlers that combines the study of Torah with military service), to his students to refuse to obey military orders if sent to remove Jews from settlements, Barak immediately ordered to withdraw funding for the Yeshiva.

Even a doctrinaire rabbi knows on which side his bread is buttered; he’s backing down. The Labour Party may be on its last legs, but this might have happened irrespective of Barak’s action, because even in opposition it would have been dwarfed by Kadima. Perhaps knowing that his party was lost, he decided to help save the country (and thus also its current government). He may, therefore, still be a hero and a national treasure, not a self-serving ambitious spoilsport.

Barak’s action is a reminder that the old political divisions are no longer relevant. What used to be left and right has now combined in a pragmatic centre in the face of the ever more militant doctrinaire fringe. The only choice may be between the sensible and the fanatical. Like Barak and Netanyahu, Tzipi Livni and her Kadima party belongs to this group.

Having refused to join the government (which would have kept out many fanatics) she may have done the country a disservice as well diminished her own standing (somewhat revived in the last few days by the silly threat of her imprisonment in Britain). Like other democracies, Israeli politics is changing. Instead of allying themselves with an ideology, sensible citizens are called upon to shun fundamentalism and opt for realism. It may not be very glamorous but it’s probably right.
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Rabbi Marmur is the emeritus spiritual leader at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto.  He now divides his time between Canada and Israel.