Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who as Prime Minister in 2000 ordered a hasty IDF withdrawal from Lebanon that has been cited as allowing Hizbullah to take over the area, now is trying to show he really is a hawk, the International Herald Tribune reported. "If he was burnt previously, he is probably reticent now," Hebrew University political scientist Reuven Hazan told the newspaper.
He has conditioned negotiations with the Palestinian Authority (PA) on Israel's ability to defend itself and establishment an anti-rocket defense system in case Arab terrorists take aim at Israel's urban centers.
The Defense Minister, who now heads the Labor party, was faced with the beginning of the Oslo War after Yasser Arafat rejected his offer to surrender almost all of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. However, he recently stated that Israelis "can't be fed more fantasies about an upcoming agreement with the Palestinians."