Netanyahu said to call Barak ‘most failed PM’ in Israeli history

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday hit back at former prime minister and defense minister Ehud Barak, reportedly calling the ex-premier the “most failed” leader in Israel’s history.

“Barak is the most failed prime minister in Israel’s history,” Netanyahu was quoted by Channel 2 news as telling a group of ultra-Orthodox journalists.

“He’s the one who promised American aid and failed. Where’s the billions he promised for Israeli security? He can wag his tail and build his [political] comeback,” he said.

Netanyahu’s reported comments came in response to Barak’s recent offensive against the prime minister’s policies, leadership, and for souring US ties. Barak last week also alleged that Netanyahu recently opened Israel up to a “major security threat,” but would not elaborate due to the “sensitivity” of the matter.

“Nobody has any idea what he’s talking about,” Netanyahu was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

On Tuesday evening, an editor for the ultra-Orthodox Behadrey Haredim news site who attended the meeting wrote on Twitter the quotes attributed to the prime minister in the TV report were “imprecise, to say the least.”

During a speech at an event for the left-wing Darkenu organization on Thursday, Barak accused the premier of bungling the negotiations with the United States over the defensive aid package, known as the memorandum of understanding.

Barak, who also served as Netanyahu’s defense minister from 2009 to 2013, accused the prime minister of “directing a discourse of hatred, silencing, cronyism, intimidation, division, internecine hatred and xenophobia.”

According to Barak, Netanyahu’s “failings” in the negotiations of the US aid package means Israel stands to receive hundreds of millions of dollars less than it would have otherwise been given by its key ally.

The former premier said the cause of the breakdown between Jerusalem and Washington was Netanyahu’s poor relationship with US President Barack Obama, the result of the prime minister “butting into the inter-party conflict there.”

The fallout of the Jerusalem-Washington feud also opened Israel up to a “major security threat,” which because of “the sensitivity of the issues” Barak would not detail.

In response to the allegations, the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee sought to summon Barak for a classified hearing. But associates of the former prime minister later maintained Barak was speaking generally and was not referring to any specific incident. Committee member Omer Barlev (Zionist Union) was set to meet with Barak on the matter this week.

In June, Barak leveled similarly harsh criticism against Netanyahu, condemning what he said was Israel’s “budding fascism,” and claimed the country was on track to becoming “an apartheid state.” He called on Israelis to rise up and seize back control of the country.

Following his August 17 speech, a furious Likud party hit back at Barak, branding him “the most incompetent prime minister in Israel’s history,” according to Army Radio.

On his watch, the party said, Israel experienced “the Second Intifada, the [October 2000] abandonment of [IDF soldier] Madhat Yousef, the lynch [of two IDF reservists] in Ramallah, and the hasty withdrawal from Lebanon that led to a takeover of southern Lebanon by Iran and Hezbollah and the firing of thousands of missiles from there at Israeli cities.”

The Likud also accused Barak of trying to make a political comeback at Netanyahu’s expense.

Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.