Arutz-7\'s Uzi Baruch spoke to former Labor party Secretary-General Nissim Zvilli this afternoon, and asked him what he makes of the spate of resignations in the party. Zvilli: “...it means that this short but very harmful period in the party’s history is hopefully coming to an end.” He blamed Prime Minister Barak for many of the party’s ills: \"Barak brought fear to the party; no one wanted to give him criticism, for fear that he would be branded an enemy. If his advisors would have told him what he was doing wrong, we would have been in a very different position now.\"
Baruch: \"But maybe the election defeat was a failure of his policy, not just of the man himself?\"
Zvilli: \"Yes, I agree that the public voted against the way in which the negotiations [with the Palestinians] were held, but we must not think even for a moment that it was a vote against the pursuit of peace itself. The talks were, in fact, waged wrongly, after we repeatedly destroyed our deterrence power... He made such far-reaching concessions... which were translated by the Palestinians into weakness that led them to think that they could ask for even more. This was Barak\'s basic mistake...\"
Baruch: \"When do you think he crossed the red line?\"
Zvilli: \"When he went to Paris [to meet with Arafat, only a few days] after the intifada started, and he continued to be willing to pay ever-increasing prices in exchange for an agreement that he had no chance of achieving. On the day the intifada started, he should have stood on his hind legs and made it clear that there would be absolutely no talks until the violence stops. Instead, he continued talking even during the violence, and this was seen as weakness, and from there the situation deteriorated and went out of control...
Zvilli then said that the Labor party would be advised to re-arrange its priorities, in light of the crushing election defeat: \"What the public wants now is a national-unity government, even if it doesn’t progress as fast as we would like in the peace process. The peace process today is not our top priority; instead we need some time to repair the social splits amongst us and find a broad consensus - even if the peace process does not advance as fast as the left-wing would like. We need to stabilize our political system - people are sick and tired of the politics and the fighting...\"
Baruch: \"But maybe the election defeat was a failure of his policy, not just of the man himself?\"
Zvilli: \"Yes, I agree that the public voted against the way in which the negotiations [with the Palestinians] were held, but we must not think even for a moment that it was a vote against the pursuit of peace itself. The talks were, in fact, waged wrongly, after we repeatedly destroyed our deterrence power... He made such far-reaching concessions... which were translated by the Palestinians into weakness that led them to think that they could ask for even more. This was Barak\'s basic mistake...\"
Baruch: \"When do you think he crossed the red line?\"
Zvilli: \"When he went to Paris [to meet with Arafat, only a few days] after the intifada started, and he continued to be willing to pay ever-increasing prices in exchange for an agreement that he had no chance of achieving. On the day the intifada started, he should have stood on his hind legs and made it clear that there would be absolutely no talks until the violence stops. Instead, he continued talking even during the violence, and this was seen as weakness, and from there the situation deteriorated and went out of control...
Zvilli then said that the Labor party would be advised to re-arrange its priorities, in light of the crushing election defeat: \"What the public wants now is a national-unity government, even if it doesn’t progress as fast as we would like in the peace process. The peace process today is not our top priority; instead we need some time to repair the social splits amongst us and find a broad consensus - even if the peace process does not advance as fast as the left-wing would like. We need to stabilize our political system - people are sick and tired of the politics and the fighting...\"