PM slams Barak for lack of coalition loyalty

By HERB KEINON
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert lashed out on Sunday in the cabinet at Defense Minister Ehud Barak, his senior coalition partner, accusing Barak of undercutting him with leaks to the press and of violating the coalition agreement in a serial fashion. Olmert's uncharacteristic outburst was triggered by Barak's remark at the cabinet meeting that Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann's proposal to curtail the power of the Supreme Court violated Kadima's coalition agreement with Labor. Friedmann's proposal would allow the Knesset to re-legislate laws the court found unconstitutional. "With regard to honoring coalition agreements, I must say that it takes an enormous lack of self-awareness to come to your fellow with a complaint about violating agreements," the prime minister said. "There is not one agreement you and your party have not violated. "I am stunned that you come to talk about violating agreements, and I am not talking currently about personal matters; that is already a chutzpah of a different nature that I don't want to talk about." It was Barak who essentially forced the prime minister out of office - after the Moshe Talansky "cash envelopes" affair was made public - by threatening to pull out of the coalition unless Kadima removed Olmert as its leader. Olmert accused Barak of violating agreements to make things easier for himself. He said Barak wanted to avoid discussions some three month ago in the security cabinet about whether to accept a cease-fire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, because he thought he would be in the minority. "Afterward you had the chutzpah to go to the press and say there could have been a calm three weeks earlier, but the prime minister prevented a debate in the security cabinet, at a time when you are one who tried to prevent a debate," Olmert said. A private conversation with Barak on this matter was documented, he added. Olmert, stressing that none of this was "personal," said he would not have brought this matter up at the cabinet meeting had Barak not said that the Friedmann proposal was a violation of the coalition agreement. "Now you are preaching about honoring agreements," Olmert said. "You are preaching morality? If you would have said that to me privately, I would have answered you privately, and it would have stayed between us, as usual, because I do not leak private conversations." Barak told the cabinet that "out of respect" for the forum, he would not respond. Olmert said he respected Barak for his security work and for his personal bravery, adding that he thought Barak was a courageous prime minister. But, he said, "you have no limits."