With elections looming, Israel's domestic politics is heating up. Initially, most parties were turning the ultra-orthodox front of Eli Yishai (Shas) and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu) into a dartboard, but attention is now on Labour Party leader and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak.
Barak has raised the stakes by putting the current approach of his own Government on the spot. In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeated that the Palestinian Authority is the only party responsible for the deadlock of the peace process.
The fight is spilling into sharp allegations in the media. The State Department denied claims that the US Administration was furious with Barak for misleading them regarding his role in the peace process, but Haaretz sources insist that Washington is still "disappointed" with Barak.
This, however, may rebound to the benefit of the Minister of Defense. Any stigma on Barak cannot be equal to that placed upon the Netanyahu Government if there is no move, even a token one, towards a resumption of talks.
And this meaning in Washington's public denial and informal insistence re Barak and Netanyahu has been picked up. Three ministers --- Avishay Braverman, Isaac Herzog and Benjamin Ben-Eliezer --- asked Barak to give an ultimatum to the Government. Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Ben-Eliezer suggested giving the Prime Minister until April before the Labor Party quits: "If there is no political progress within several months, we have to quit the government.
Meanwhile, following Washington's recent signals to Damascus in the hope to bring some "fresh blood" into the region's discussion, Barak sent another message. Visiting Tze'elim army base in the southern Occupied Territories, Barak said there was no progress on the Syrian track and Israel should focus its efforts on jump-starting the negotiations with the Palestinians. The Minister of Defense said that, in Israel's "complex" reality, the Government has a responsibility to seek every possible way to reignite the so-called peace process.
What about Netanyahu? He took a careful line by avoiding any blame on Barak for the muddle over talks on a three-month extension of a freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank. He said:
I told Obama that I am prepared to go with this to the cabinet and that I will be able to enforce the move, but then I received the surprising phone call from the Americans who said they no longer demand that Israel extends the freeze.
The Americans were right in saying that the settlement freeze will lead to a dead end, in which we would have entered an endless path of settlement freezes, but despite it all I agreed to go through with it.