Former prime minister and defense minister Ehud Barak lamented his former partner Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for damaging the US-Israeli relationship and for failing to pursue the two-state solution.
Speaking at Globes’ annual Israel Business Conference in Tel Aviv, Barak suggested that Netnayahu attributed to the deterioration in the the relationship by siding with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election.
“We cannot get involved in US politics!” Barak said.
“I told my friends in the Cabinet that we need to respect American sovereignty. They have their own opinions, and we must listen to them. We must respect them,” the former defense minister told his interviewer CNN anchor Richard Quest. “There has never been a perfect symmetry. We must protect our own sovereignty, but, at the same time, promise that we won’t destroy our relationship with the US President, or with the American public. The relationship was not destroyed, but it was damaged. Both US Secretary of State John Kerry and President Obama invested a lot in helping us, and they failed. Rabin and Peres also failed; also I failed. We can’t use this to curse them. We must respect them,”
When asked by Quest if he would be taking part in the upcoming elections, Barak said, “The table is empty, and I am not on it, ask the candidates.”
Barak also warned that the formation of government that will not pursue the two-state solution will be damaging to Israel. “In the Western world, there is a sense that Israel is drifting right, and this is dangerous for Israel. If there is a government that’s not interested in two states for two nations, it’s dangerous for Israel,” he said.
Addressing recent votes by several European parliaments in favor of recognizing a Palestinian state, Barak remarked, “It starts with the parliament and moves to academia and to all of the NGOs. For Israel, this is a dark shadow on the horizon.”
