By Stan Goodenough
Jun 17, 2007
Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak has been named defense minister replacing Amir Peretz.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appointed Barak Friday, two days after he (Barak) was elected to lead the once-powerful – but now diminished – Labor Party.
Barak is Israel’s most highly-decorated soldier, and a man widely regarded as a national hero.
He will assume his new post Monday, when he is sworn into the Knesset and after Peretz’s resignation takes effect.
According to reports in the British Sunday Times, Barak plans to mobilize 20,000 IDF troops and send them into Gaza to crush Hamas there in a few weeks’ time.
An unnamed source “close to Barak” was quoted as saying that Israel could not allow an aggressive Hamastan to exist on its southern border.