Opposition Leader Tzipi Livni mounted a surprisingly acrid attack on Labor leader Ehud Barak, in her first speech after the inauguration of Binyamin Netanyahu’s government. Disregarding the ceremonial air which usually accompanies such inaugurations, Livni tore into the Defense Minister, who will remain in his position despite the change of governments, accusing him of corruption.
“We believe that the Knesset is the foremost constitutive body, and not the court,” she said. “But every government must carefully safeguard the independence of the legal and law enforcement elements and this is something that the next government has no intention of doing,” she added, hinting that she did not believe the Netanyahu would protect the Supreme Court the way she could have if she were Prime Minister.
“Oh yes, the Labor Party joined this government, and at the critical time, when there is a confrontation on matters having to do with law enforcement, they will squirm with some discomfort on their chair in the government session,” she predicted.
“The Chairman of the party will squirm in discomfort on his chair," she continued, "because he will have to explain afterwards to a retired judge that he entered the government in order to protect these elements."
Livni's statements were interpreted by observers as a reference to former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak, who reportedly asked Ehud Barak to join the government in order to block former Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann, who is seen as a mortal foe by Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch. Aharon Barak's request provided an excuse for Ehud Barak to join the Netanyahu government -- a move which undercut Livni's hopes of leading a powerful center-left opposition.
“The Chairman of Labor, do you understand?” she asked rhetorically. “[This is] the man who made his political fortune through fundraising for NGOs and who made his personal fortune through his political connections, but who will always find someone to protect him, either by remaining silent in the police [interrogation] or in a speech at the convention, and sometimes both.”
This was an apparent reference to Welfare Minister Yitzchak Herzog, who maintained silence in the police probe of Barak's alleged corrupt use of campaign funds and who supported Barak's decision to join the Netanyahu government. Livni sees him as one of the people who disappointed her by not insisting that Labor enter the Opposition, as he promised after the February election for the current Knesset.
Barak: she's lost control
Barak’s bureau responded by issuing a statement saying, “The depth of [Livni’s] frustration cannot justify the things she utters in the name of ‘the other kind of politics.’”
The statement went on to say: “The embarrassing things that Mrs. Livni said about the Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, indicate a loss of control and of reason, in the content as well as the style of the things she says. Mrs. Livni would do better to remove the beam from between her eyes, and to check the morality and rectitude of some of her friends in Kadima, before preaching morals to others. It would be fitting if she concentrated on parliamentary work in the opposition instead of baseless and unbridled accusations.”