Barak mocks challengers for Labor Party leadership

Herzog and MK Shelly Yacimovich write to Barak, urging him to ensure that misconduct does not take place in Labor’s current membership drive.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
barak kill 190 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski )
barak kill 190
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski )
The Labor Party leadership race began in earnest at Monday’s Knesset faction meeting when incumbent chairman Ehud Barak derided his challengers, Minorities Affairs Minister Avishay Braverman and Welfare and Social Services Minister Isaac Herzog.
Barak first targeted Braverman, who swam across Lake Kinneret as part of a fund-raiser on Sunday.
RELATED:Labor MKs call on Herzog to resign from governmentOpinion: A new way for Labor?“I heard that 22 carps swam after you in the sea and that you registered them to the party,” Barak said to Braverman.
When Braverman told Barak that he should not push him to open his mouth, Barak said, “Like a carp.”
Turning to Herzog, Barak said, “I heard Boojie [Herzog’s nickname] is also worried about this.”
MKs in the faction later criticized Barak for his intention to appoint his political adviser, Oshi Elmeliah, as Labor’s new director-general.
When the faction discussed a bill limiting foreign contributions and Barak asked whether it would apply to leftist nonprofit organizations, MKs joked that it would only prevent donations for buying apartments in Tel Aviv’s posh Akirov Tower, where Barak lives.
Herzog and MK Shelly Yacimovich wrote to Barak on Monday, urging him to ensure that misconduct does not take place in Labor’s current membership drive.