Commenting on statements made by former Shabak head Yuval Diskin over the weekend, MK Einat Wilf, a close confidante of Defense Minister Ehud Barak, said that Barak was “the last person you could accuse of Messianism.” At a forum over the weekend, Diskin accused Barak and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of preparing Israelis for a “messianic war” against Iran. “The man from the Akirov Towers in Tel Aviv, and the man from the Rehavia neighborhood in Jerusalem and Caesarea are not the messiahs,” Diskin said, referring respectively to Barak's and Netanyahu's places of residence.
Wilf said that Barak was very down to earth, and “has worked for the security of Israel for many years, with a very realistic viewpoint.”