'Rumors of my demise were premature'

[Mosby]

The meeting before the interview was no less interesting than the interview itself. It took place a few weeks ago in the defense minister's office in Tel Aviv. Outside a storm raged: Writer Amos Oz asserted that the Labor Party had concluded its historic mission, the media battered Ehud Barak mercilessly and the polls showed Labor getting the same number of seats as Meretz under Haim Oron: seven. In the oddest way, an election campaign that was supposed to focus on Kadima and its Ehud, turned into a campaign that zeroed in on Labor and its Ehud. Barak became the national punching bag. Nevertheless, in his office, Ehud Barak was cool and composed, as though ice flowed through his veins. He revealed no signs of distress, there was no anger in his voice. Even after a long day of work, he was in fine spirits. However, there was one difference: This time the most decorated soldier in Israel's history talked about himself. About how the unconditional warmth he received from his parents imbued him with self-confidence. About how as a teenager in a hiking group he discovered his navigation skills. About how, as a youthful soldier who did not even shave yet, he volunteered to lead an infantry company on a desert trek at night and how the mission's success marked his metamorphosis into "Ehud Barak." And about his feeling that a glass barrier now exists between the public and Ehud Barak - a barrier he wants to shatter. Whether people hate him or love him, he said, he wants them to at least know who they hate or love.

Maybe it was a command that Barak gave himself: to be human. Maybe it was the new strategy he adopted: to achieve a political breakthrough by means of emotional empathy. But whatever the reason, this was a wholly new Barak: exposed, personal, self-critical. As though he himself were observing the phenomenon of Ehud Barak and trying to decipher it. As though he were trying to understand the sources of his strength and weakness. As though he had realized at this late date that the way to survive the fight of his life was not to charge ahead, but to withdraw, reflect, reveal.

Three weeks later, his words looked a bit different. Kadima and Meretz had started to sink in the polls, while Labor began to recover. Clever campaign posters cropped up all over, declaring that Barak "is not trendy" and "is not your buddy" - but a leader. In the center of the living room in the famous apartment in Tel Aviv's luxurious Akirov Tower, the Labor Party chairman sat on a simple wooden chair, sipped whiskey and said he was optimistic. There was no way people would not see the truth in the end, he said. There was no way the public would not, finally, burst out of its virtual-reality bubble and see the true picture. After all, clouds are visible, gathering on the horizon. The first waves of the tsunami are already rolling onto the shore.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1048244.html

[bemildred]

1. Damn, I thought this was about Sharon. nt