Posted on 07/02/2002 4:54:48 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
In TV Interview, Ehud Barak Calls Arafat A Serial Liar
Copyright © 2002, Dow Jones Newswires
JERUSALEM (AP)--Yasser Arafat is a serial liar, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday, and urged fellow Israeli moderates to denounce him.
In his first interview to Israel Television since being voted out of office in February 2001, Barak denounced Arafat, his former negotiating partner, as untrustworthy. "When you try to embrace him, he will evade you like smoke," Barak said.
"He is a serial liar, so deeply unbelievable that I say it is a waste of time talking about him," Barak said. "He has finished his historic role."
Barak placed the blame for the outbreak of violence in September 2000 squarely on Arafat's shoulders and said Israel's pro-peace camp would not return to power "until its leaders can look into the eyes of the public and say the one who is responsible for the wave of terror ... is Yasser Arafat."
The violence, which is still going on, erupted less than three months after the Camp David summit with Barak and Arafat, hosted by then-U.S. President Bill Clinton, ended without agreement.
"Arafat's single mistake, that he didn't accept (Clinton's) proposal as a basis for discussion, is worth more than the 150 mistakes" that Israeli leaders may have made during the peace process, Barak said.
The proposal included a Palestinian state in all of the Gaza Strip and more than 90% of the West Bank, including a foothold in Jerusalem. Arafat held out for the right of millions of Palestinian refugees and their families to return to their original homes in Israel and insisted on sovereignty over disputed holy sites in Jerusalem.
With violence escalating and peace talks frozen, Barak lost a special election for prime minister to Ariel Sharon by a wide margin, after the hawkish Sharon disowned Barak's far-reaching peace offers.
In the interview, Barak praised statements by U.S. President George W. Bush's last week that called for Arafat's removal, "as a victory to Israel and Sharon."
But Barak said Sharon was making "a mistake by not putting a peace plan on the table."
Barak contended that Israel should maintain "an open door to negotiations without preconditions other than a total end to violence."
He also backed an initiative by Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer to fence off the West Bank to stop Palestinian attackers from infiltrating into Israel. "It's a pity we didn't do it a year ago. We would have saved many lives," he said.
Barak said he would stand by the decision he made following his crushing defeat to Sharon to take a "time out" from politics. "I see myself as a reserve soldier of the homeland ... who expects that he won't be called unless it is absolutely essential." Barak was a career soldier before entering politics.
Barak has given many interviews to reporters abroad and has made several speeches in Israel, but this was his first formal TV interview in Israel since his election defeat.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires 02-07-02
2226GMT
Hey I heard a rumor that Barak is changing his middle name to "Understatement". Ehud "Understatement" Barak.
Unfortunately, too many peacniks think peace can work when there will always be war. It's human nature to fight, India/pakistan, the balkans, Greece/turkey come to mind. A leopard never changes its spots, why should we think things will get better.
Thus proving for all of time and beyond argument that the insane f*****g ["Freaking?"] Israel Labor potty will never acknowledge its own -- nor Bumbling Barak his -- total responsibility for all of the madnness and murder that has descended FRom their having, at Oslo, first suicidally put Israel's innocents in bed with the life-long serial liar/murderer!
Israelis will ever again elect such suicidal scum at their Nation's mortal peril!
I totally agree with you! The belief system of the peacenicks are so out there. I've gotten into a few debates with them. And what I discovered is that their ideology is not too different from any religion. New Age beliefs, Buddhism, Progressivism, Communism, etc. all believe that humans can collectively will human nature to be something it is not... that the goal is world unity, peace, brotherhood of mankind, no suffering, etc. I always tell them that it takes much more faith to believe that humanity (through good intentions and possitive will power alone) can change its nature into something that several thousand years of history have proven it is not than to believe that Christ alone can save us.
The same could be said for both the other negotiating partners in that deal, Arafat AND x42!
Barak should stayed a simple soldier. As a "statesman," he's always been a complete dud, in hock up to his ears to Clinton and Carville. Not long ago, he was willing to give away the store to Arafat. Fortunately, he was turned down.
Good for you, Sally! That must really spin their dial for them. LOL!
So I guess he believed Hitler meant what he said in "Mein Kampf" and it didn't bother him.
Lets just tell the truth, and call him a SERIAL KILLER.
BREAKING NEWS: The sun will rise in the East tomorrow! Bears will sh*t in the woods!
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