Israelis lose faith in flip-flopping Barak

Israelis lose faith in flip-flopping Barak
REUTERS

FEB 1: Prime Minister Ehud Barak was known in the military for his navigation abilities but a failure to use those skills while at Israel's helm seems likely to lead him to a resounding defeat in next week's election.

Five days before facing right-winger Ariel Sharon at the polls, Barak is zig-zagging again, first calling off peace talks until after the ballot and then saying a summit with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was possible before the election.

"Will they meet or won't they? It depends who you ask, "political analyst Shimon Shiffer wrote in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on Wednesday, a response that could be applied to much of Barak's policy planning in his year and a half in power.

Barak has flip-flopped on nearly every issue in his short-term, muddying his position on everything from social issues to peacemaking and prompting the Israeli public to lose faith in his ability to be Prime Minister, political analysts say.

"It really hurt him. I think it is one of the things that hurt him most in the election campaign," Shiffer told Reuters, dubbing Barak's moves the "policy of zig-zagging".

"He is seen in the Israeli public as someone who doesn't know where to lead this poor ship," Shiffer said.

Trailing Sharon, 72, by around 20 percentage points in opinion polls, the 58-year-old General would need a miracle to win Tuesday's election. This means it no longer matters if he changes course, Shiffer argued.

"I think the Israeli electorate has already decided to bringdown Barak, so it doesn't matter what Barak does in the campaign and what mistakes Sharon makes," Shiffer said.

"What he (Barak) is doing now is devastating from the point that it only strengthens his zig-zag image," he added.

Barak came to power in a landslide victory in May 1999, vowing to bring peace to Israel but not to divide Jerusalem, promising to be the "Prime Minister of everyone", but to keep the ultra-Orthodox out of his government.

Two months later, he allied with the ultra-Orthodox Shas party and its 17 parliamentary seats, causing political rows and helping to unravel his broad Left-centre coalition.

A year later, Barak headed for the US-Hosted Camp David peace talks, costing him his parliamentary majority. He then shook public trust in him by breaking long-held Israeli taboos, including talking about sharing control of Jerusalem.

After peace talks stalled, Barak introduced a social plan --dubbed by the Israeli media a "secular revolution" -- that alienated Orthodox Jews, including the moderate religious Meimad party in his one Israel faction.

"They were such radical changes, between secular and religious, Arafat is a (peace) partner, Arafat isn't a partner," said Gadi Wolfsfeld, a political scientist at Hebrew University. "The majority of Israelis don't have a basic faith in Barak."

Credible leaders, a Ha'aretz newspaper columnist wrote, can persuade Israelis to take risks for peace, as in 1979 when Menachem Begin signed a peace treaty with Egypt and in 1993 when Yitzhak Rabin sealed the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians.

"By his behaviour in various areas, Barak seriouslyundermined this Supreme condition for a continuing credit-line from the people," columnist Gideon Samet wrote.

"Another window of opportunity (for peace) recently opened-- unfortunately, the leader simply does not know how to use it. Barak screwed up, with the ungracious "help" of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat," he added.

Many Israelis blame Barak for failing to quell afour-month-old Palestinian uprising in which more than 370 people, mostly Palestinians, have been killed.

ROCKY RIDE

Political analyst Hanan Crystal said if Barak had reached apeace deal or if he even met Arafat before the election, it would help him, regardless of his past policy swings.

"It (zig-zagging) hurt him, but that's not what brught himdown. What brought him down was the Intifada (uprising) on one hand and the inability to reach an agreement on the other hand.

"If the zig-zagging had led him to a peace agreement, itwouldn'T have hurt him," he said.

In any case, months of navigating between the peace tableand the battlefield have made for quite a journey, Shiffer said.

"He took us on such an interesting trip...Wow," he said. "Ifthey had told me a year and a half ago to think of the trip Barak would take us on I would have never imagined this."