On 7 July 1995, Barak was appointed
Minister of Internal Affairs by
Yitzhak Rabin. When
Shimon Peres formed a new government following Rabin's assassination in November 1995, Barak was made
Minister of Foreign Affairs (1995–96). He was elected to
the Knesset on the Labor Party list in
1996, and served as a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. In a party leadership election held after Peres' defeat in the
1996 election for Prime Minister, Barak was elected leader of the Labor Party
in June 1997.
Prime Minister of Israel (1999) , joined by President
Bill Clinton (1999) In the
1999 Prime Ministerial election, Barak beat
Benjamin Netanyahu by a wide margin. However, he sparked controversy by deciding to form a coalition with the ultra-Orthodox party
Shas, who had won an unprecedented 17 seats in the 120-seat
Knesset. Shas grudgingly agreed to Barak's terms that they eject their leader
Aryeh Deri, a convicted felon, and enact reform to "clean up" in-party corruption. Consequentially, the left wing
Meretz party quit the coalition after they failed to agree on the powers to be given to a Shas deputy minister in the Ministry of Education. In 1999 Barak gave a campaign promise to end Israel's 22-year-long occupation of
Southern Lebanon within a year. On 24 May 2000 Israel
withdrew from Southern Lebanon. On 7 October, three Israeli soldiers were killed in a border raid by
Hezbollah and their bodies were subsequently captured. The bodies of these soldiers, along with the living Elhanan Tenenbaum, were eventually exchanged for Lebanese captives in 2004. The Barak government resumed peace negotiations with the
PLO, stating that "Every attempt [by the State of Israel] to keep hold of this area [the West Bank and Gaza] as one political entity leads, necessarily, to either a nondemocratic or a non-Jewish state. Because if the Palestinians vote, then it is a
binational state, and if they don't vote it is an
apartheid state." As part of these negotiations, Barak took part in the
Camp David 2000 Summit which was meant finally to resolve the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict but failed. Barak also allowed Foreign Minister
Shlomo Ben-Ami to attend the
Taba Summit with the leadership of the
Palestinian Authority, after his government had fallen.
Domestic issues On 22 August 1999, Barak appointed the
Tal committee which dealt with the controversial issue of ultra-Orthodox Jews' exemption from military service. Following the failure of the Camp David summit with Arafat and Bill Clinton in the summer of 2000, when the original seven-year mandate of the PNA expired, and just after Israel pulled its last troops out of southern Lebanon in May 2000, the
October 2000 riots led to the killing of twelve Israeli Arabs and one Palestinian by
Israel Police and one Jewish civilian by Israeli Arabs.
Resignation In 2001, Barak called
an election for prime minister. In the contest, he was defeated by Likud leader
Ariel Sharon, and subsequently resigned as Labor leader and from the Knesset.
In private life (2001–2007) Barak left Israel to work as a senior advisor with United States–based
Electronic Data Systems. He also partnered with a private equity company focused on "security-related" work. In 2005, Barak announced his return to Israeli politics, and ran for leadership of the Labor Party in
November. However, in light of his weak poll showings, Barak dropped out of the race early and declared his support for veteran statesman
Shimon Peres. Following his failed attempt to maintain leadership of the Labor Party, Barak became a partner of the Pennsylvania-based investment company
SCP Private Equity Partners. He also established a company "Ehud Barak Limited" which is thought to have made over
NIS 30 million. After Peres lost the race to
Amir Peretz and left the Labor party, Barak announced he would stay at the party, despite his shaky relationship with its newly elected leader. He declared, however, that he would not run for a spot on the Labor party's
Knesset list for the
March 2006 elections. Barak's attempt to return to a prominent role in Israel politics seemed to have failed. However, Peretz's hold on the Labor leadership proved unexpectedly shaky as he was badly damaged by negative views of his performance as Defense Minister during the
2006 Lebanon War, which was seen as something less than a success in Israel.
Return to politics Ehud Barak, with Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu after the
Victoria Affair, March 2011 In
January 2007, Barak launched a bid to recapture the leadership of the Labor party in a letter acknowledging "mistakes" and "inexperience" during his tenure as prime minister. In early March 2007, a poll of Labor Party primary voters put Barak ahead of all other opponents, including Peretz. In the first round of voting, on 28 May 2007, he gained 39% of the votes, more than his two closest rivals, but not enough to win the election. As a result, Barak faced a runoff against the second-place finisher,
Ami Ayalon, on 12 June 2007, which he won by a narrow margin. Barak has been critical of what he sees as racist sentiments
that have recently been expressed by some Israeli
rabbis and
rebbetzins; he views such statements as a threat to Israeli unity and that they may lead Israeli society into a "dark and dangerous place".
Defense minister and head of Ha'Avoda (2007–2011) (2007) After winning back the leadership of the Labor Party, Barak was sworn in as
minister of defense on 18 June 2007, as part of Prime Minister
Olmert's cabinet reshuffle. However, on 1 July 2007, Barak led a successful effort in the Labor central committee to stipulate that Labor would leave the government coalition if Olmert did not resign by September or October 2007. The
Winograd Commission would publish its final report on the performance of the
Israel Defense Forces and its civilian leadership. The preliminary Winograd report, released in early 2007, laid most of the blame on Olmert for poorly planning, executing, and reviewing war strategies in the
2006 conflict against
Hezbollah. From December 2008 to January 2009, Barak led the
Israel Defense Forces through
Operation Cast Lead in his capacity as minister of defence. Labor won only 13 out of the 120 Knesset seats in the
2009 elections, making them the fourth largest party. Barak and other Labor officials initially stated they would not take part in the next government. However, over the objections of some in the Labor party, in March 2009, Barak reached an agreement under which Labor joined the governing coalition led by
Benjamin Netanyahu. Barak retained his position as Defense Minister.
Leaving Ha'Avoda and minister of defense (2011–2013) In January 2011, Labor Party leader Barak formed a breakaway party,
Independence, which enabled him to maintain his loyal Labor's MK faction within Netanyahu's government, and prevented the departure of Labor party as a whole from Netanyahu's coalition-government. Labor previously threatened to force Barak to do so. After Barak's move, Netanyahu was able to maintain a majority of 66 MK (out of 120 in the
Knesset), previously having 74 MKs within his majority coalition. In February 2011, Barak attended a ceremony at the UN for the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. Barak told the UN General Assembly that "an independent, strong, thriving and peaceful State of Israel is the vengeance of the dead." Barak's Independence party was due to run in a
legislative election, but decided not to in 2012, and retired from politics. Barak planned to quit since
Operation Pillar of Defense but postponed it until later that year. Barak stated during an American television interview that he would "probably" strive for nuclear weapons if he were in Iran's position, adding "I don't delude myself that they are doing it just because of Israel". This comment has been criticized and compared to Barak's comment in 1998 during a television interview when he said that if he were a Palestinian he would probably have joined one of the terror organizations.
2019 failed return to political life On 26 June 2019, Barak announced his return to politics and his intention to form a new party named the
Israel Democratic Party, intending to challenge Netanyahu in the
September 2019 Israeli legislative election. The party ran with Meretz and other parties in the
Democratic Union alliance, which received five seats. Barak himself did not enter the Knesset. == Relationship with Jeffrey Epstein ==