Former PM Ehud Barak on Israel's Future

Former Labor party Prime Minister Ehud Barak sat down with Haaretz newspaper and gave a candid interview in which he spoke about the upcoming disengagement, Sharon's overall strategy, and his predictions for the future of the State of Israel.

While Barak agrees that the upcoming disengagement is "an important step in the right direction" he also believes that "it is a partial and hesitant step" and that "it will not bring deliverance." In his own words, "Disengagement is the first page in a book that will have a great many chapters, some of them very rough."

Barak's also has absolutely no faith in the way that the disengagement is being carried out and concedes that predictions by some right wing MP's and by some in the security establishment that the disengagement may lead to more terror may prove to be true. Barak's point is simple: Sharon has no strategy. The disengagement will not lead to more Israeli overtures or land concessions and the Palestinians will interpret Sharon's unilateral and incomplete moves as a surrender to terror. Violence will resume and

"The violence will not lead the world to be on our side, but the opposite. At a certain stage we'll lose the support of the international community. Initially the United States will support us, but in time its support will also be eroded. Israel will find itself isolated. Internal cracks will appear within Israeli society. And only then, when there will be no choice, Israel will do what it should have done from the beginning.

That action that Barak believes Israel should have done from the beginning is to draw clear and recognized borders for the state of Israel and plan their diplomatic and security arrangements accordingly. It is then that Israel "can be in the forefront of the world's leading countries. If we carry out a full disengagement and arrive at clear borders, there will be a tremendous outburst of all the energy that is stored up here."

The problem is that Sharon knows that the international community, accepting the right of the Palestinians to self-determination, will not share the same vision of Israeli-Palestinian borders that Sharon has in mind. According to Barak, Sharon knows that the borders of Israel will not go east of the current route of the separation fence so he is simply not completing the fence and in the process, putting the lives of Israelis at risk. In his own words,

The truth is that there's no chance that the border of the country will pass east of the fence line. In the best case, we'll be able to hold the fence line. But Sharon is not capable of admitting this. He does not have the courage to go to the settlers in the isolated settlements and tell them the truth. He does not have the courage to admit that it was folly to establish the isolated settlements. And because of that, because he does not dare speak the truth about the isolated settlements, he is also losing the big blocs.

The interpretation is that by not doing what he needs to do now and making the concessions that will lead to clear borders and a Palestinian state, he will cause Israel to be in a weak position that will ultimately result in having to surrender much more down the line. What course of action would Barak take if he were Prime Minister?

"Five things. First, complete the separation fence in an emergency national project lasting a few months. After that, evacuate the isolated settlements to the east of the fence within the framework of a comprehensive evacuation plan to be implemented within two-three years. Concurrently, Israel wages an all-out war against terrorism across the fence, too. In parallel, Israel keeps the door open for the renewal of the political process. Israel proposes to the international community to give itself a mandate over the Palestinian territories to assist the Palestinian Authority in preparing itself for the establishment of a Palestinian state."