"I'm not a magician and I'm not perfect," Labor Chairman Ehud Barak concedes during his interview with Ynet, "I'm not blind – surely I've made a few mistakes. On the political level, in how I conducted myself, by focusing on making peace or reasserting Israel's might based on the lessons of war. I focused on that and ignored other things – this was a mistake."
"It's true that people are angry with me, angry with Labor, and that's fine. Be angry with us, lash out at us, condemn us. But don't punish yourselves. At the end of the day we're talking about people's lives."
Pollsters attribute the exodus from Labor as an abandonment of supporters to both the left and the right – namely to Meretz and Kadima, respectively – but Barak urges voters to think twice.
"A country isn't a game. You're not choosing a person, you're choosing a party. Only an idiot would think that by giving his vote to Kadima he is also giving it to a bloc – he's not. It could be that the morning after the elections the results are 60-60, and Bibi (Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu) offers some people in Kadima two ministerial posts, a deputy minister and a committee chair, and people will leave. These are people prone to doing that. They've done it before, they left in the past but they can jump back. In Kadima you don't know if you've given your vote to Livni… or to clear-cut rightists.
"It's an ambiance party, that is responsible for the sidelines of the disengagement and its consequences, for the Second Lebanon War – and now they're telling us it's 'a different kind of politics.' There's a qualified woman at its head, but she's surrounded by people who have been convicted of criminal offenses and never appealed, people who are being investigated, and we're not just talking about one or two. Kadima (lit. 'forwards') means Backwards."
And what of Netanyahu's Likud? "They'll lead us to a regional confrontation and then to a confrontation with the whole world. The world over is swamped with the economic challenge, with political issues, and they expect to see progress here in the region. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a yoke. Netanyahu and the Likud will lead us as they have in the past into a standoff with the world over policies that will lead us to a dead end."
But would Labor still consider joining a government under Netanyahu?
"We will not join a government if its foundation is not in line with ours. We are not afraid to sit in the opposition. We will demand negotiations with the Palestinians, and with the Syrians, we will demand to see an Israeli proposal for a comprehensive peace. The economy, the collapse of which is the responsibility of Bibi and the Likud, must be helped back to its feet according to our way of doing things."
It's doubtful you'll get what you're after. Are you declaring yourself the next opposition chairman?
"Gladly. If that's what the voters decide. Bibi's way leads to stagnation and a political dead end and social ruin. If we can't be in a centrist-left bloc capable of forming a government, then I will lead the opposition. But if Netanyahu changes his spots and our way prevails – how could we not consider (joining his coalition)?"
