(Haaretz).Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday slammed Labor Party Chairman Ehud Barak's efforts to join the government, saying that the incoming right-wing government was likely to bring the State of Israel into unprecedented isolation.
"Anyone who consciously walks into a government that does not believe in two states for two people is likely to force Israel into an isolation it has not seen since its establishment," Olmert told ministers at the weekly cabinet meeting.
Olmert took the opportunity to criticize the politics of Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu and hinted that he saw Barak as a 'scoundrel' for seeking to join up with a rightist coalition.
"Whoever thinks he can succeed in reaching international cooperation on the Iran issue on the basis of a policy which rejects any political agreement with the Palestinians and the Syrians is delusional," said Olmert.
"Whoever believes this, I can only say that I pity his dogma. But someone who doesn't believe in this, yet still cooperates, I can only say I pity the scoundrel," he added.
