Barak says no plans to reenter politics, run for PM

Labor leader Herzog urges former PM to come back, announces former National Security Council chair has joined party

Opposition leader Isaac Herzog on Sunday urged former prime minister Ehud Barak to rejoin the Labor party as the retired politician said he has no plans to make a political comeback at this stage.

Sitting alongside the former defense minister at a Labor party event in Tel Aviv, Herzog also announced that Brig. Gen. (res.) Dani Arditi, a former chairman of the National Security Council and counterterrorism bureau chief under three prime ministers, will be joining the Labor party.

“I am very happy that you, Ehud, are returning to public life and call on you to rejoin the Labor party,” Herzog said, while stressing that the Zionist Union party now has 24 seats in the Knesset, more than under Barak’s leadership.

In recent months, Barak has been rumored to be mulling a comeback and Monday’s events sparked some anticipation that he would imminently announce his reentry into Israel’s political life.

Over the past year, the freshly bearded 74-year-old politician opened a Twitter account and took to social media, and Israeli television, to launch frequent, scathing critiques of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former boss, and the governing coalition.

But Barak on Monday said he has no plans at the moment to return to political life or challenge Netanyahu for the premiership, despite Herzog’s appeals, according to Hebrew reports. The former Labor chief, who splintered the center-left party in 2011 and created the breakaway Independence party that remained in Netanyahu’s coalition, was also heckled by some participants at Monday’s event.

“Ehud, I very much enjoy your tweets, and I have no doubt that they echo in the public and on Balfour [street in Jerusalem, at the Prime Minister’s residence]. But the people here expect you to come down from the balcony and join [the party]. Tweets and Twitter aren’t everything,” said Herzog.

In his address, Herzog said he was not ruling out any political alliances — both within the Knesset or outside it — and was willing to work with anyone seeking the betterment of Israel’s future.

“My worldview says that you don’t need to fear the entry or return of good forces to politics and the party. The opposite is true. The more that come, the better,” says Herzog.

Herzog also formally announced that Arditi, who has also worked under Netanyahu, was joining the party.

Last month, former Kulanu minister Avi Gabbay, who quit the governing coalition in May, joined the Labor party. Gabbay, also a fierce critic of Netanyahu, was expected to pose a challenge to Herzog for the party leadership in the upcoming summer primaries.