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Barak is forced to reject Sharon's defence job offer
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From The Daily Telegraph Feb 21
ISRAEL'S caretaker Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, last night abandoned plans to save his political career by becoming defence minister in a government of national unity.
Facing a rebellion in his Labour Party, Mr Barak told colleagues he would not seek the defence portfolio, and would resign his Knesset seat. His departure leaves in ruins the coalition-building plans of the Right-wing Prime Minister-elect, Ariel Sharon. But it may ultimately ease the way for him to form a national unity government with the Labour Party putschists.
He has given the feuding party - still the biggest in the Knesset - one week to make up its mind if it wants to join him. When Mr Barak lost by a landslide to Mr Sharon in the Feb 6 election, he announced that he would be taking a break from politics, a move welcomed by colleagues who blamed him for leading the country to near-war with the Palestinians.
But he backtracked when pressed by Mr Sharon to join him in government, prompting a party revolt. His chief critic, the Labour leadership hopeful Haim Ramon, said last night: "Ehud Barak was not some kind of great success as defence minister. Should Ehud Barak fix the security situation for which he was responsible?"
Mr Sharon has set great store by forming a broad-based government, as a way to unite the country at a time when peace moves with the Palestinians have collapsed. But it remains to be seen if the Labour Party can be tempted to join a government with Mr Sharon's natural allies on the far Right.
A narrow, far-Right coalition - Mr Sharon's other option - would be greeted with suspicion in Europe and seen by Arabs as proof of his hostility to peace.
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