Uzi Landau
Uzi LandauYoni Kempinski

Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau (Yisrael Beiteinu) said that Tuesday Defense Minister Ehud Barak appears to suffer from “battered woman syndrome.”

"Defense Minister Ehud Barak brought us the retreat from Lebanon, supported the Disengagement in Gaza and the failure of the Cast Lead operation that strengthened Hizbullah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza,” Landau said, “and now he offers additional future retreats.” He was referring to Barak's statements that he was proud of the IDF's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 and that Israel would need to make additional unilateral withdrawals.

"This reminds me of a battered woman who, instead of confronting her batterer, asks herself again and again where else she needs to give in,” Landau said.

“It is unthinkable that every minister from the Labor party is conducting his own private policy,” Landau told reporters at the 14th Cleantech exhibition in Tel Aviv. “Maybe it is time to find out where the Palestinians need to give in on something, in order to bring about a diplomatic agreement.”

Regarding the march currently being conducted by family of abducted soldier Gilad Shalit and its supporters, the former Likud minister said that he would support the march “if the protesters eventually reach the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv in order to bring to the world's attention to the underhandedness of Hamas.” However, he added, if the purpose of the march is to blame the government of Israel for refusing the deal offered by Hamas, and to pressure it to free Shalit “at any price,” he opposes the march very strongly.

Further pressure on the government will not bring about Shalit's release, Landau added, and “will prod Hamas to initiate further abductions and demand future deals that will cause more deaths and more abductions.” Israel, he warned, will lose its power of deterrence.