Prime Minister Ehud Barak's "one hundred days of grace" have
ended and voices of discontent can already be heard from his
closest associates. The first murmurs were voiced by senior
ministers and Labor party members, who complained about the
way Barak appears to be running the government and the party.
Many claim that Barak is arrogant in his dealings with the
very people who brought him victory.
Now, even the media, which did everything in its power to see
that Barak would be elected, is turning a critical eye on the
new Prime Minister.
Aviv Lavi, of Ha'aretz, pointed out that the Israeli
media coverage of Barak' first visit to Washington as prime
minister strengthens Netanyahu's repeated claims about its
lack of objectivity. "Its been a long time since an Israeli
Prime Minister merited such an outpouring of schmaltz
and compliments, especially as he has not yet done
anything."
Under the headline "Ehud is one Of Us," Lavi wrote that the
best political journalists--professionals equipped with large
amounts of cynicism--praised Barak's every step and smile
during his visit to the White House.
He mentioned a series of examples from newspapers
headlines.
Yediot Acharonot described the Barak and Clinton
relationship as: "The Beginning of a Remarkable Friendship."
Ha'aretz described Barak as "relaxed and self-
confident." Ma'ariv did an even better job, with the
headlines, "Udi Chamudi and Billy the Kid." (Udi Chamudi is
the name of an Israeli childrens song and means "little
darling." In this case Udi was a play on the name Ehud and
Billy refers to Bill Clinton.) "Rabin Would have Been Proud
of You [Clinton Tells Barak], or "U.S. Jews have faith in
Barak" and "Things Seem Totally Different."
Ma'ariv also stabbed outgoing Prime Minister in the
back, and printed adjacent pictures, one under the headline
"Then," taken during a visit of the Netanyau family in
America over the caption "difficult and tense days." The
second headlined, "Now," showed a photo of the Barak family
visit, over the caption "at ease."
These were the headlines of the first day of the visit.
The following day, the papers devoted themselves to a flood
of compliments given by the President to the Prime Minister,
such as: "I was deeply impressed by his intelligence," and "I
could listen to him talk all night."
According to Lavi, the headlines clearly show that the
journalists were asleep at the wheel.
"When leaders...dress up like a chosson and
kallah on their wedding day, the job of the press is
to remove the veil and to focus on the content and not the
wrappings," he said.
"The media has to examine the Prime Minster's actions, and in
Washington, nothing was done. A facade was marketed by two
professionals (Barak internalized the rules of the game quite
quickly), and the media, for some reason, decided to
cooperate with them"
In the same paper, political leftist journalist Uri Shavit,
sharply criticized Barak for claiming to be able to solve the
Arab-Israeli conflict "within a few months."
"He promises to end a war which has been going on for 100
years, no more and no less, and to do all this out of an old-
new sabra sense of superiority, out of the self-
confidence of an achiever who has no doubts, out of that well
known sabra type of presumptuousness of those who
think they know everything: We'll do it again, just like we
did it on the battle fields: quickly, strongly and
elegantly.
"With one fell swoop, until the Gordian knot is untied, we'll
bring Asad to the Kineret, Arafat to the el Aktza mosque, and
sholom al Yisroel."
"Ehud Barak has many enemies and many admirers," Shavit
continued. "But if Ehud Barak has one good and sincere
friend, he had better tug his sleeve right now, and tell him:
Watch it, Ehud.
"It would be a good idea if that friend also reminded Ehud of
what Ehud knew until recently: that the Israeli-Arab story in
general, and the Israeli-Palestinian story in particular, is
essentially a tragedy. There is one thing which tragedies
can't stand, and that is arrogance. Tragedies have their own,
nasty way of dealing with the arrogant: They raise them
higher and higher, and then send them crashing down.
Therefore, as Ehud Barak strides to the front of the stage,
and is about to show his prowess in coping with this tragedy,
which is one of the biggest and most complex in the world,
the first thing he must do is to rid himself of arrogance,
pretension and pride."
In the same newspaper, the leftist Miron Benvenisti also
related to this topic. Under the heading "The Sin of
Arrogance," he writes that political leaders must be wary of
"boastful daring, which doesn't take into consideration one's
inability to change the world order."
In general, Ha'aretz led the attacks against Barak.
Yoel Marcus, one of the journalists who admired and urged
Barak to run, disclosed his disappointment and bewilderment
in an article under the heading "How Do We Swallow This?"
"A strange thing happened to Ehud Bark, between his great
victory in the elections, and his first month as prime
minister," Marcus wrote. "The level of the bitterness he
created among his ministers, and the settling of accounts
with his friends is perhaps worse than that of his
predecessor during the corresponding period. He totally
ignores the government, makes decisions by consulting himself
and his shoes, and leaves everyone in a state of uncertainty
and tension until the last second."
In that same paper, Aryeh Caspi pointed out that when Avraham
Burg beat Barak's candidate for Speaker of the Knesset, many
Labor MKs gloated over Barak's defeat.
"During the formation of the government, his true image was
disclosed, and he was revealed as one who pays when he thinks
he has no choice, and doesn't pay for what he gets free.
"He is a forceful person who knows how to yield to the strong
in accordance with their power, and squeezes every drop on of
his strength when dealing with the weak. A clever
manipulator, a man who sends shivers up one's spine."
Caspi's article had a one-word heading: "I." Underneath it
appears an oft repeated picture, in which Barak is seen
raising his arms with self-confidence, and self-
satisfaction.
Caspi himself concludes:
"Barak has the capacity of learning from past mistakes. It is
hoped that the reactions he received this week will cause him
to think again, so that we won't one day discover that Ehud
Barak is the last roadside bomb Netnayahu left us before he
left the stage."
The series of critical articles about Barak, which appeared
in Ha'aretz finish at this point with the article by
Chana Kim, who pointed to the fact that Barak doesn't let
anyone participate in his political plans and activities, not
even the foreign minister.
"Yet Barak still doesn't understand why he isn't receiving
backing. `Why are you all so sour faced?' he asked a number
of ministers last week. `Why don't you defend me?' "
Ofer Shelach of Maariv also wrote about his
disappointment with Barak. After the Prime Minster succeeded
in forcing all of the members of the coalition to vote for
the expansion of the government, Shelach wrote: "Cheers for
the winning hero. Against logic and the opinion of all law
abiding citizens in the country, and despite the views of
some of his senior ministers, without substantial political
justification, and almost without explaining himself, Ehud
the magician, merited a fantastic victory, and imposed an
unlimited government on us."
After the appointment of the new ministers, Ofer Shelach
wrote: "The work of forming the government of Ehud Barak
ended, but hasn't been completed. He announced that by the
end of the year, he would appoint another minister, and if we
learned something in the last month, it is that Barak relates
to every one of his statements--the right ones and the wrong
ones, the incidental ones and the intentional ones, as if
they were Torah miSinai."
"We have also learned that we are dealing with an
impenetrable, uncommunicative vengeful Prime Minister, and
perhaps most important of all, we have learned that there is
no one who can stop him."
He went on to explain that Netanyahu had strong political
foes who made him pay a price for his arrogance. Barak has no
strong opponents--yet.
In Yediot Acharonot, Sima Kadmon wrote about Barak's
presumptuousness, under the headline "He's the Best Blunderer
in the World."
In the article, she claimed that one month has passed, since
the Prime Minster took office, "we have the feeling that he
is about to crash into a brick wall at high speed."
Barak hates receiving advice, she said, and prefers to leave
his ministers in the dark, and to surround himself with a
group of gray yes-men, as advisors. The man who is capable of
seeing as far as Damascus, doesn't see what's going on right
under his nose."
Barak has been led until now by a feeling of power and
achievement, the article says. He managed to subdue and
degrade whoever he wanted to, and will try to do so in the
future.
"Ehud Barak had, until now all the reasons in the world to
believe in this way of life. He passed from bunker to bunker,
command to command, and managed to blast everyone. He did
this alone. He believes that he can continue that way as the
Prime Minster.
"If he managed to subdue Shimon Peres he will successfully
subdue Yasser Arafat. If he broke the Labor party he will
break the Palestinian Council."
"Barak's next test will be the budget. This will be a battle,
and Barak has to have someone on his side," Kadmon noted.
"But there is no one who is willing to suffer on his behalf.
There are too many people who want to settle accounts with
him. The political battlefield of Barak is strewn with
bodies.
"The problem," she continued, "is that in politics these
bodies have living spirits. And these spirits are waiting to
take their revenge. "One can win," she said of Barak's
current state of affairs, "and one can win too much."
