“Netanyahu led Israel to disaster twice,” says former Prime Minister Ehud Barak

By Romana Rubeo

Barak has consistently criticized Netanyahu’s policies over the past ten months, particularly his handling of the war in Gaza, negotiating agreements and relations with Washington.

Israeli Army Radio on Wednesday quoted former Prime Minister Ehud Barak as saying that Benjamin Netanyahu has led Israel to disaster twice: first on October 7 and then again through what he described as the worst-managed war in history.

“I hope the negotiating team will demand that Netanyahu present decisions to the cabinet, as that is how the system is structured in Israel,” Barak reportedly said.

The former Israeli prime minister also said that Netanyahu cannot make all decisions on his own. “He is not authorized to do so. If he continues to refuse, I foresee that they will go directly to the public,” Barak told Israeli Army Radio, according to Al-Jazeera.

Barak has consistently criticized Netanyahu’s policies over the past ten months, particularly his handling of the war in Gaza, negotiating agreements and relations with Washington.

The most dangerous crisis

Last June, in a article In the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Barak wrote that Israel is experiencing “the most serious and dangerous crisis in the country’s history” and that it cannot “afford any more mistakes.”

“We need to immediately replace this failed government by setting an agreed date for elections or, alternatively, holding a constructive vote of no confidence,” he wrote, warning against having to fight on multiple fronts.

“Close to total failure”: Barak says “absolute victory” is an empty slogan

“We will remain in Gaza, without a clear victory, while we will also be in an all-out war with Hezbollah in the north, a third intifada in the West Bank, conflicts with the Houthis in Yemen and Iraqi militias in the Golan Heights, and of course conflict with Iran itself, which has already demonstrated through the April missile attack that it is willing to act directly against us,” Barak also wrote.

Genocide in progress

Defying a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive against Gaza.

Israel, which is currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, 40,005 Palestinians have been killed and 92,401 injured in the genocide Israel has been perpetrating in Gaza since October 7.

In addition, at least 11,000 people are missing and presumed dead under the rubble of their homes across the Strip.

Israel claims that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed that day by “friendly fire.”

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Palestinian and international organizations say most of the dead and wounded are women and children.

The Israeli war has caused severe famine, especially in northern Gaza, resulting in the deaths of many Palestinians, mostly children.

The Israeli aggression has also led to the forced displacement of nearly two million people from across the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of those displaced forced to move to the densely populated southern city of Rafah near the Egyptian border, in what has become the largest mass exodus from Palestine since the Nakba of 1948.

Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from southern to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.

(PC, AJA)

– Romana Rubeo is an Italian writer and executive editor of The Palestine Chronicle. Her articles have appeared in numerous online newspapers and academic journals. She holds a master’s degree in foreign languages ​​and literature and is specialized in audiovisual and journalistic translation.