(Yossi Verter-Haaretz).Ehud Barak sat on the dais at the Dan Panorama Hotel conference hall on Wednesday, grinning from ear to ear. Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer had regaled him with Bolshevik praise: "You're strong, the strongest, you're stronger than anyone." But when Barak took the podium, the smile turned to a scowl. He didn't speak, but virtually sprayed out his words, and many of the points he made were indisputable.
A perusal of the new Labor Party constitution - ignoring the laments of its opponents - reveals a perfectly reasonable document, which resembles the Likud's constitution and is less anti-democratic than Kadima's.......In private conversations, Labor ministers refer to their leader as "our Bibi." They complain among themselves that the original Bibi - Benjamin Netanyahu - is more attentive and more likely to involve them in party affairs than the "compatible" version they have at home. In recent years, they have been quick to become enamored of prime ministers from the rival parties.
Barak is a wildly popular defense minister. In the Netanyahu government he wears the mantle of the sane security chief, the responsible adult. That's how the nation wants him: with Bibi. Why shouldn't they run together in the next election, as No. 1 and No. 2? The differences between them grow less discernible by the day. Our Bibi, their Bibi. Or is it vice versa?
It was a good week for both Bibis, ours and theirs. The prime minister concluded the Knesset's summer session with his self-respect restored, and his coalition, too. He pushed through his two bills, the land-reform law and the so-called "Mofaz law," with a majority of almost 20 MKs.
Netanyahu discovered the efficacy of threatening people. Just two weeks ago, after being forced to hold off on a vote on the land-reform bill in the Knesset, he was on the brink of losing control of his coalition. On that fateful evening he announced that he would fire every minister or deputy minister who did not vote in favor next time, and wonder of wonders, they all voted in favor. All the "values" disappeared as soon as a ministerial portfolio was at stake. A week after the deputy defense minister, Matan Vilnai (Labor), absented himself from the first vote, explaining that he could not betray the memory of his father, Zev Vilnay, the noted Land of Israel researcher, by voting for the bill - he voted in favor without blinking.....
This was Netanyahu's best week since he took office four months ago, with the possible exception of the week of his Bar-Ilan University speech about a two-state solution. Now he has a week off, a trip to Britain and Germany, the Jewish holidays, followed by October and then swine flu. Indeed, Netanyahu's bureau is preparing for the flu; we will soon hear about their ideas on the subject.
Yesterday the prime minister visited the gay-lesbian youth club in Tel Aviv, which was attacked last week. The visit was a simple act, humane and necessary. True, it was a few days late in coming, but as Leah Rabin told people who came to pay condolences after Yitzhak Rabin's funeral: "Too bad you didn't come earlier, but it's good you came now."
A perusal of the new Labor Party constitution - ignoring the laments of its opponents - reveals a perfectly reasonable document, which resembles the Likud's constitution and is less anti-democratic than Kadima's.......In private conversations, Labor ministers refer to their leader as "our Bibi." They complain among themselves that the original Bibi - Benjamin Netanyahu - is more attentive and more likely to involve them in party affairs than the "compatible" version they have at home. In recent years, they have been quick to become enamored of prime ministers from the rival parties.
Barak is a wildly popular defense minister. In the Netanyahu government he wears the mantle of the sane security chief, the responsible adult. That's how the nation wants him: with Bibi. Why shouldn't they run together in the next election, as No. 1 and No. 2? The differences between them grow less discernible by the day. Our Bibi, their Bibi. Or is it vice versa?
It was a good week for both Bibis, ours and theirs. The prime minister concluded the Knesset's summer session with his self-respect restored, and his coalition, too. He pushed through his two bills, the land-reform law and the so-called "Mofaz law," with a majority of almost 20 MKs.
Netanyahu discovered the efficacy of threatening people. Just two weeks ago, after being forced to hold off on a vote on the land-reform bill in the Knesset, he was on the brink of losing control of his coalition. On that fateful evening he announced that he would fire every minister or deputy minister who did not vote in favor next time, and wonder of wonders, they all voted in favor. All the "values" disappeared as soon as a ministerial portfolio was at stake. A week after the deputy defense minister, Matan Vilnai (Labor), absented himself from the first vote, explaining that he could not betray the memory of his father, Zev Vilnay, the noted Land of Israel researcher, by voting for the bill - he voted in favor without blinking.....
This was Netanyahu's best week since he took office four months ago, with the possible exception of the week of his Bar-Ilan University speech about a two-state solution. Now he has a week off, a trip to Britain and Germany, the Jewish holidays, followed by October and then swine flu. Indeed, Netanyahu's bureau is preparing for the flu; we will soon hear about their ideas on the subject.
Yesterday the prime minister visited the gay-lesbian youth club in Tel Aviv, which was attacked last week. The visit was a simple act, humane and necessary. True, it was a few days late in coming, but as Leah Rabin told people who came to pay condolences after Yitzhak Rabin's funeral: "Too bad you didn't come earlier, but it's good you came now."
