Barak: Bennett a ‘national clown, leads a faintly fascistic party’

Former prime minister Ehud Barak on Wednesday got into a nasty spat with Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett, calling him a “clown… leader of  a deranged nationalistic party that carries a faint whiff of fascism.”

Speaking to Army Radio after  the education minister attacked him on Twitter, Barak, a former IDF chief-of-staff and defense minister, dismissed Bennett, the minister of education, as a former “low-level [IDF] officer… who has for some time now been masquerading as a security expert.”

The feud between the two erupted after Barak on Tuesday criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of relations with Russia surrounding the Syrian crisis.

Barak, on Twitter, posted photos of Russian President Vladimir Putin with Netanyahu and with Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“Three months ago: Putin and Netanyahu on the banks of the Black Sea. Yesterday: Putin and Assad on the banks of the Black Sea. The sea is the same sea and Putin is the same Putin. It is our foreign relations that have failed utterly.”

לפני 3 חודשים: פוטין ונתניהו על שפת הים השחור.
אתמול: פוטין ואסד על שפת הים השחור.
הים אותו הים ופוטין אותו הפוטין, אלה יחסי החוץ שלנו שנחלו כישלון חרוץ. להחליף את שר החוץ, ואת מי שמינה אותו. pic.twitter.com/zULnNUAQoL

— אהוד ברק (@barak_ehud) November 21, 2017

Bennett, in response, tweeted: “Greetings to the national tweeter” — an apparent reference to Barak’s tendency to tweet his opinions on various matters of national significance.

“Since when has a meeting of an Israeli premier with Russia’s leader supposed to somehow prevent a similar meeting with the Syrian president? Our interests are not identical,” Bennett continued.

Bennett then went on the offensive.

As prime minister in 2000, “You wanted to hand over the entire Golan [Heights] to Assad. It’s a good thing you failed,” he wrote.

שלום לצייצן הלאומי:
1. ממתי מפגש של רה״מ ישראלי עם מנהיג רוסיה אמור איכשהו למנוע פגישה דומה עם נשיא סוריה? האינטרסים שלנו אינם זהים.
2. רצית למסור לאסד את הגולן כולו. טוב שנכשלת.
3. קבעת שאסד ייפול תוך 3 שבועות.
4. הותרת מדינה בלהבות.
5. תמשיך לצייץ, נמשיך לנהל. https://t.co/VTpOxxjJPd

— Naftali Bennett נפתלי בנט (@naftalibennett) November 21, 2017

“You claimed that Assad would fall within three weeks,” he added, in reference to a 2011 assessment by then-defense minister Barak.

“You left a nation in flames,” Bennett shot. “Keep tweeting, we’ll keep running things.”

Barak, in response, told Army Radio on Wednesday evening that Bennett was “an example of the saying by our sages ‘A coin in an empty vase makes a lot of noise.'”

Barak said Bennett was “lacking in experience, he never ran anything… and never will run anything.” He defined Bennett’s statements about him as “fake news,” saying it was Netanyahu that first offered the Syrians the Golan for peace during his first premiership between 1996-1999, and claiming that the security situation during that period was far worse than under his own stewardship.

Barak added that Bennett is a “national clown” who allegedly leaks information from meetings of the security cabinet, and heads a “deranged nationalist party, with a faint whiff of fascism and a dusting of corruption.”

Bennett then hit back at Barak again, telling Army Radio that few people in Israeli history “caused so much damage in so little time.”

Barak last week hinted at the possibility of renewed political aspirations when he said during a TV interview that no one was better suited than him to run the country.

The 75-year-old claimed that many people have urged him to return to political life. “It’s no secret that many people come to me and tell me: ‘Come, get on with it, do something,'” he told Hadashot news (formerly Channel 2).

“Someone sent me a poll… from four months ago… which showed that in a race between me and Netanyahu I would win the majority of the secular vote,” he said.

Barak did not comment on whether he would seek to join an existing party or start his own. On the latter, he opined that it was too early to launch a new party before the next election, currently scheduled for 2019.

Over the past year, Barak has become an outspoken critic of Netanyahu, with diatribes against the prime minister and his governing coalition, on Twitter, radio, and television.

Barak was the IDF’s longest-serving chief of staff and the country’s most decorated soldier, before becoming prime minister in 1999, after defeating Netanyahu in elections.

Following his defeat in 2001 to the late Ariel Sharon, Barak temporarily retired from politics, but returned to the Labor Party in 2005. From 2007 to 2013 he served as defense minister, the last four years under Netanyahu.

In 2011, he split from Labor, along with four other MKs, forming the short-lived Independence Party, in order to remain in Netanyahu’s coalition, despite the objection of most of Labor. The party was effectively disbanded upon Barak’s retirement from politics in 2013.