After announcing less than a week ago that he wanted new
general elections and then working the rest of the week to
avoid them, Prime Minister Barak finally decided -- without
consulting any of his ministers or senior politicians or
advisors -- that he will resign and thereby cause new
elections for prime minister but not for the entire
Knesset.
Barak once again demonstrated his style: quick to change
course, opportunistic, working on his own, and, most
prominently of all, concerned about no one but himself.
Barak saw the weekend polls that showed even Ariel Sharon
beating him (35 percent to 32 percent), and he knew that to
have a chance to win, he must have elections soon. He heard
the withering criticism of him from Chaim Ramon, a prominent
member of his own party, and he could see that there is deep
dissatisfaction with his performance within his own camp. He
knows that he faces his most difficult challenge from former
prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu (leading with 46 percent
to only 26 percent for Barak), and he decided that he must
do all that he can to forestall Netanyahu's ability to run
against him.
The government is paralyzed. There has not been an effective
government in power since last summer. Certainly this has
not been all bad since many of those formerly in power want
nothing more than to destroy the Jewish religion, and the
lack of a government has severely hampered their efforts in
this direction. It is clear that one of their cherished
dreams is to withhold all financial support from religious
activities and to generally try to harass religious Jewry at
every opportunity.
Recalling the advice of Maran HaRav Shach shlita
about the direct election of Israeli prime ministers, one is
struck by how accurately and fully his assessment was borne
out. He was strongly opposed to this new system, arguing
that the elected prime ministers would arrogantly try to
govern on their own, without consulting the Knesset. This,
he felt, would allow them to do all sorts of mischief based
on their own convictions, without the retraining influence
of the Knesset which is the only representative body of the
State of Israel, and thus the only place that the chareidi
community has some influence, based on its numbers.
Barak neither seeks not listens to advice, and he has made
all the major decisions of his administration on his own,
including the offer to the Palestinians to control parts of
Yerushalayim.
It is amazing to remember that Ehud Barak was once Chief of
Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, and in that capacity he
surely made decisions that had life and death consequences.
We can assume that the same problems that Barak is showing
to the community at large also plagued him then. It does not
inspire confidence in his decision making, to say the
least.
Given Barak's incessant return to basic anti-religious
policies and his attempts to use issues such as the yeshiva
student draft legislation to coerce the religious parties
into supporting him, we can only applaud the fact that
elections will be held soon, and continue to pray and hope
for someone less hostile to religious people and their way
of life to be elected as the next prime minister.
