By Stan Goodenough
Jun 19, 2007
Former Israeli Prime Minister and recently re-elected Labor Party leader Ehud Barak assumed the post of defense minister Tuesday.
As Barak – who attained to the position of Chief of Staff, and was Israel’s most highly-decorated soldier before retiring from the IDF – took over from Amir Peretz, speculation was rife over how he would respond to the incessant Kassam rocket-fire from the now Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
CNN bizarrely but typically described the liberal Barak – under whose leadership Israel offered to give virtually all of its biblical heartland to the PLO and unilaterally fled southern Lebanon, surrendering it to the Hizb’allah – as a man “known for his hawkish views.”
Immediately following a brief ceremony at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, Barak went into meetings with Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and other military leaders.
Israelis will be eagerly and anxiously awaiting the outcome of these and doubtless many subsequent meetings in the coming days.