Labor party contestants Amir Peretz and Ehud Barak traded jabs with each other over the two wars in Lebanon, each accusing the other of disaster.
Former IDF Chief of Staff and Prime Minister Ehud Barak gave Defense Minister Amir Peretz damning praise Thursday night for being "talented" but inexperienced. The Defense Minister shot back, stating Barak has "no shame."
"Amir Peretz is a talented person and so is [Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert," said Barak, who is trying to unseat Peretz in next month's Labor party primary ballot. "They had good intentions, and what happened to them proves that even among the highest ranks more experience is required."
Barak, who is almost tied with Ami Ayalon in pre-primary polls, kept up a polite stance by complimenting government leaders personally but using his former military background to cast a shadow on the lack of military experience of Defense Minister Peretz and Prime Minister Olmert.
"In the Middle East, the weak get no favors, and those who don't know how to defend themselves will not get a second chance," he said an annual commemoration ceremony in honor of fallen graduates of military boarding schools.
Peretz, who is a distant third in polls and who has suffered severe criticism for his part in the Second Lebanon War, quickly recalled Barak's hasty and unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000. 
Barak is the father of Hizbullah's re-arming
The Defense Minister ridiculed the former IDF Chief of Staff's own experience, blaming him for the re-arming of Hizbullah that resulted in the deaths of more than 150 soldiers and civilians in last summer's war and devastated Israel's reputation as a military power against Arab enemies.
"The man [Barak] took the IDF out of Lebanon in a unilateral action and without any agreement or international force and left Hizbullah free to gain strength at the border--he is responsible for closing his eyes," Peretz charged. "Barak is the father of Hizbullah's re-arming."
"Barak, with all the experience he has, has experience in fleeing, too, like his escape from Lebanon," Peretz charged. "[This] is what led to us wake up one day to the reality of an armed Hizbullah sitting on Israel's doorstep in tunnels they had been digging for years."
While Barak and Peretz raise the volume, with the current party chairman chiding Barak for making trips abroad instead of working at home with the party, MK Ayalon took the opportunity to boast party loyalty.
Ayalon reminded supporters in Ashkelon Thursday night that his backing of Peretz after he won the party leadership vote last year showed his desire to "keep the party united."
The former head of intelligence chided the two other contenders, saying that "in the years since Barak lost to Ariel Sharon, Sharon filled the political vacuum and there is a leadership vacuum after Sharon."
The former head of intelligence also charged Barak with not presenting his policy on key matters. "Whoever remains silent endangers the security of the State of Israel because he is liable to be elected and only then he will tell us what he wants."