Former prime minister Ehud Barak responded to the allegations of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, and the controversial recording of a conversation between them, in a Thursday evening interview with N12 News.
"I am responsible for all my actions and decisions, and there is certainly room to question whether I should have exercised better judgment and conducted a more thorough investigation into the details to truly understand what happened," Barak said in the interview, adding that he "regrets the moment I met him in 2003."
He added that he had cut ties with Epstein in 2019, once the "true extent and depth of his disgusting crimes" came to light.
Barak said that he'd been aware of Epstein's trial and year-long prison stay since 2008, but saw the "American elite – political, business, academic, cultural, philanthropic – treating him as a person who committed a crime, was punished, paid his debt to society, and is now returning to operate within that society."
When asked about his and his wife's use of Epstein's New York apartment and about a 2014 birthday message sent to Epstein, Barak at first evaded a direct answer, then said it was more a matter of convenience than anything else.
"If you can travel to the US and don’t need to drag things to a hotel each time, and you can leave clothes and some things there, it’s convenient, that’s all. There’s nothing wrong with it," he said, noting that he was not the prime minister at the time.
"A citizen can stay in a house, in an apartment given to him by someone with whom he has social or business ties," he added. "This apartment is in an old residential building with 100 or 120 apartments, at least a dozen of which were Epstein’s. He gave them to people he wanted to stay there from time to time.
"And there are definitely things that could be considered aesthetic or ethical flaws by honest people, and I say to any honest person who came to this conclusion, who is a supporter of mine, a friend, or an ordinary citizen – I say I should have exercised more judgment, and I regret not doing so."
Instead, Barak repeated his regret of meeting Epstein and apologized to his friends, supporters, and "ordinary citizens who feel deep discomfort."
"I do not apologize to the hate machine, and I do not apologize to the purists without boundaries," he added.
In the audio recording between Barak and Epstein recently made public during the release of the latest wave of files, the former prime minister said that Israel could “easily absorb another million” immigrants from Russian-speaking countries, and that many would apply and adapt under “social pressure."
Regarding a specific comment in the audio, in which he says, "a lot of young, beautiful girls will come, tall and slim," Barak said it was an "unfortunate choice of words and metaphor, really with associations of inappropriate stereotypes."
"But I suggest to anyone who listens and watches us now, take a mirror, and ask themselves if they speak like that in private conversations. This is not a speech of an official," he said, claiming that the recording released "is a distorted description through cutting pieces of a conversation."
He said that the two conversations included one with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and a private conversation with former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers about Israel's "long-term demographic challenge."
Barak noted that during "rescue operations" after Israel's founding, "you don’t vet who you rescue, you rescue everyone and must not do selection," unlike now, when "you can control quality more than the founders of the state could. A country of immigration wants quality immigrants, and therefore, we will perform selection."
He then attempted to backtrack his comment of "quality immigrants," explaining that at the time, there were no Jews left in the Arab and Muslim countries, which is why he used Russia as an example of potential immigrants.
"There’s no racism there. I’m stating a fact," Barak said, before shifting focus to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who, "on record stated that the soldiers, the fighters in Golani, who are of North African or Yemeni descent, they can be good soldiers as long as they’re sure they have white officers."
"And his wife is known for making embarrassing racist remarks when she gets angry," Barak added.
Barak: Media is a 'poison machine'
Barak then again accused the media of being a "poison machine," twisting his words and spreading propaganda.
When asked about the photographs taken of him on Epstein's island and his visits there, Barak claimed that he had made only one three-hour-long visit to the island, "accompanied by my wife and three bodyguards. On the island, there was only Epstein and a few local workers who worked in gardening and maintenance."
He then returned the matter to Netanyahu again, asking why "when Netanyahu is photographed on the beach in an intimate proximity to Arnon Milchan, the biggest criminal of the European Union in the last generation, who says in his trial that he gave Netanyahu a million euros, and no report on such a million euros appears in any Israeli authority?"
Asked whether more documentation of his and Epstein's relationship could come to light, Barak said it is definitely possible, but asserted that it would contain "no crime, no criminal act, nothing improper."
"I know those who can’t even say such a sentence, but I am responsible for all my actions," he concluded.
Shir Perets contributed to this report.