Mr. Barak goes to the Washington Post

After a self-imposed, semi-exile to the shadowlands of the local politics, former prime minister Ehud Barak seems to have set his sights on the Knesset once again, embarking on his latest journey to Jerusalem with a biting attack on current Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu in an op-ed in The Washington Post on Thursday. Barak accused the prime minister of “reckless conduct” that has damaged the Jewish state’s strategic position and threatens its very existence.

While rival Hebrew-language papers Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel Hayom differ in focus with respects to this new political feud, analysts of both papers seem to agree that Barak’s attack — which he later continued on Israel’s Channel 2 and Channel 10 news shows Thursday night — was in bad taste, and, no less important, far from effective.

“Barak: Netanyahu is misleading Israel’s citizens,” reads Yedioth’s headline. In his op-ed, Barak (who also served as Netanyahu’s defense minister from 2009 to 2013) accused the prime minister of bungling negotiations over a massive new US military aid deal for Israel and only landing a package significantly smaller than originally expected. The deal with Washington officials was signed Wednesday.

“The damage produced by Netanyahu’s irresponsible management of the relations with the White House is now fully manifest,” Barak wrote. “Israel will receive $3.8 billion a year — an important contribution to our security but far less than what could have been obtained before the prime minister chose to blatantly interfere with US politics.”

Barak’s strong rhetoric failed, however, to impress leading Yedioth contributor Sima Kadmon, despite her very clear, long-standing disapproval of all things Netanyahu. “It is hard to find an adequate word to describe Ehud Barak’s appearance [on Channel 2] yesterday,” Kadmon writes. “Delusional is probably the closest word to what we saw last night on our screens.” The Yedioth analyst goes on to complain that Barak, instead of announcing his political aspirations outright, chooses to mount an insignificant attack on Netanyahu and hide behind “anonymous backers” — a reference to a series of mysterious billboards recently put up in the Tel Aviv area, which urge the former prime minister to once again run for office.

Israel Hayom, for its part, leads with the Likud party’s response to Barak, as the ruling faction dismissed the Washington Post column as “nonsense” by the “most failed prime minister in Israel’s history,” who is attempting a “pathetic” political comeback. “The publication of an article in the American media that bashes Israel on the day the largest aid deal in the history of the US was signed is just further proof that Ehud Barak does not have Israel’s best interests at heart,” the party said.

Mati Tuchfeld, Israel Hayom’s political correspondent, wonders if Barak has “completely lost it,” arguing that while the aid deal may not have been perfect, it was far more than any other American ally had ever received in the past. “What would be good enough [for Netanyahu’s critics]?” Tuchfeld asks rhetorically. “45 [billion dollars]? 100?”

Meanwhile, Haaretz‘s Gidi Weitz reports that Odelia Karmon, a former adviser to Netanyahu when he served as head of the opposition, told police her former boss attempted to cover up payments she received from a US non-profit while in his employment. Karmon was being investigated as part of one of the preliminary probes into the prime minister, which has since been closed by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit.

“He was in a panic… he told me, ‘Odelia, so they won’t be able to talk, give back the money,’” she said. “Bibi suddenly went into an insane hysteria. I don’t know who tipped him off, after all you can light him up like a flame… and then he said to me: ‘Odelia, give back the money.’”

According to Haaretz, the particular case under investigation also involved US-born Ari Harow, who headed American Friends of Likud from 2003-2006 and served as Netanyahu’s bureau chief between 2008-2010, and again in 2014.

Finally, Yedioth reports on the reunion of legendary Israeli rock band Tamuz, comprised of veteran singer-songwriters Shalom Hanoch, Ariel Zilber, Meir Israel, Eitan Gordon, and Yehuda Eder. Nearly 40 years after releasing their first and only album, the monumental “Sof Onat Hatapuzim [The End of Orange Season],” Tamuz returned for a show in front of 14,000 fans “as if it were still 1976,” according to the Yedioth report. “Tamuz may have left the stage for the last time,” the report continues, “but they will live forever.”