By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMANbarak 224.88 ap(photo credit: )
Labor Party chairman Ehud Barak will have a difficult time passing the coalition deal that his representative initialed with Kadima last week in his party's institutions, Barak's opponents in Labor said Sunday.
Barak began an effort to try to pass the deal by meeting on Sunday with his predecessor and nemesis, MK Amir Peretz. While Barak's spokespeople said the meeting was positive and political, diplomatic and security issues were discussed, a source close to Peretz called it a "waste of time."
"They squandered half an hour so Barak could claim that he is speaking to everyone in the faction," the source said.
Barak is expected to meet later in the week with two other MKs who ran against him for the Labor leadership, Minister-without-Portfolio Ami Ayalon and MK Ophir Paz-Pines. Both men have been increasingly critical of Barak and both are interested in running for the position again.
Failure to pass the coalition deal would be embarrassing for Barak.
Peretz, who is strong in Labor's central committee, has not yet decided whether to back the deal, while Paz-Pines has already decided to try to block it.
"It is too soon to tell who will back the deal, because it still might change," a Barak opponent in Labor said. "There is a legitimate chance that he won't pass it, because people don't understand where the party is going."
Barak's opponents mocked him for insisting that the coalition deal declare him as the "most senior minister after the prime minister." They predicted that his title would become an object of ridicule no less than the infamous picture of Peretz peering through binoculars with the lens caps on when he was defense minister.
Barak responded that the title had nothing to do with his own ego and that it was essential to guarantee Labor's influence in the new government.
"Not everything is cynical," Barak told Army Radio. "I want a real partnership, and I define that partnership as the leader of the second-largest party, being the most senior minister other than the prime minister."
Barak, who in the past downplayed his low standing in the polls, acknowledged for the first time that he was not a serious candidate for the premiership.
"I am aware of my situation and I plead guilty," Barak said. "I don't have the necessary political backing to be prime minister. So I decided to be the senior partner in Tzipi Livni's government, and that's what I will do if the government is indeed formed."
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