Likud party chairman Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu told participants at a ceremony commemorating the first anniversary of the Second Lebanon War Tuesday night that Labor party chairman and Defense Minister Ehud Barak was in some ways responsible for the war.
“Barak’s government lead (Hizbullah leader Hassan) Nasrallah all the way to the fence,” said Netanyahu. Ehud Barak pulled IDF troops out of southern Lebanon in response to international pressure during his tenure as Prime Minister in 2000, leaving the northern border accessible to Hizbullah terrorists. “The retreat from Lebanon was an irresponsible escape,” he said.