Barak: Gaza Invasion Won't Stop Qassams

by Haaretz Staff
Haaretz
August 11, 2008

http://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/293/barak-gaza-invasion-wont-stop-qassams

Defense Minister Ehud Barak admitted yesterday that even a large-scale Israel Defense Forces invasion of Gaza would not stop militant attacks on Israel, saying he would prefer to see the current truce remain in place.

Barak has often said that an Israeli invasion is nearing, but in an interview with Channel 10 TV, he indicated even a large-scale invasion would not stop Hamas rocket attacks. Instead, he said, a seven-week-old Egyptian-mediated truce is effectively halting the barrages.

Barak also hinted at Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's not being premier material in the television interview last evening, saying: "It is possible to have a prime minister without a security background. The question is what would be wise to do."

The atmosphere of Kadima's approaching September primary has led even Barak, who is also the Labor Party's chairman, to break his media silence. Barak also said the country had "seen this deficiency at work two years ago; despite all the military people that sat around the cabinet table, the decisions remained controversial."

Barak spoke at length about the Second Lebanon War and its outcome, saying that the war, which was fought among other things to prevent Hezbollah from gaining strength, had in fact been a "huge leap forward for Hezbollah, like many of our previous wars." He added that the six years preceding the war had been the quietest ever on the northern front, although the number of Katyushas in Hezbollah's arsenal had grown. "[Former prime minister Ariel] Sharon and his leadership acted wisely in not responding to Hezbollah's growing strength. We went to war unprepared and incorrectly."

Barak also said: "[David] Ben-Gurion said that wars should be avoided or postponed, but if they are forced on us, we must win them unequivocally, on enemy territory and quickly." The defense minister said that in his mind the right thing to do now, in the face of security threats and the impending economic recession, would be to form a national unity government. "A country's leadership has a responsibility to make decisions. This is a test I have passed."

Barak said that if the attempt to establish a national unity government failed, general elections should be held.

Regarding his 1999 negotiations with the Syrians in Shepherdstown, Barak said there was no way to conduct talks on the Middle East "without them being held in a place that will allow for talks without reporting daily to the public." According to the Labor Party head, former Syrian prime minister Hafez Assad tried to create a situation in which Israel "would accept his preconditions before the talks were launched, as a condition to their beginning."

Barak said he is up-to-date on the ongoing Turkish-brokered talks between Israel and Syria. However, he said that the priorities of the Syria of today are different from those of Israel, and "therefore it is impossible to hold serious negotiations."

Barak went on to say that anyone who thinks it is possible to first agree on the June 4, 1967 lines and only then start negotiating over cutting off ties between Damascus and Tehran, ending support for Hezbollah and establishing an early warning system in the Golan, is living in cloud cuckoo land and "those in the Middle East who live in the clouds and not on the ground end up with broken limbs and not with peace."

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