SECURING ISRAEL'S FUTURE

January 23, 1996
		After the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Israel reorganized. New foreign minister Ehud Barak talks with Charlayne Hunter-Gault about security.

Browse the NewsHour's coverage of the Middle East   Ministry of Foreign Affairs Israel Embassy The Labor Party	CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Ehud Barak is the latest in a tradition of Israelis moving from military posts to jobs in politics and diplomacy. Barak, a general, is a former army chief of staff. He was named foreign minister in the new government formed after the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Barak is visiting Washington, and I talked with him yesterday afternoon. I asked him about possible stumbling blocks in the Israel-Syria talks resuming tomorrow at the Y Plantation in Maryland. EHUD BARAK, Foreign Minister, Israel: I see a kind of obstacle on any given aspect of it. But I think that most important are the security arrangements, especially the kind of arrangements against a surprise attack. We need a surprise attack to become practically impossible, and I think the problem is of importance, terror, Lebanon, and, of course, the depths of normalization and the ability to bring about not only Syria but ultimately the Gulf States and other states.
	The Golan Heights.
	CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: In terms of the security, do you believe that, that Israel can live without the Golan? EHUD BARAK: I believe that we should stick to the formula made by the assassinated prime minister--Rabin said the depths of withdrawal will commensurate with the depths of peace, namely, if we can get a full normalization, full open peace with open trade, open transportation, open free flow of goods, services, and people over the borders, and if we get it comprehensively, namely including Lebanon and other states, if we get into regional economic project and if attention will be given to our security needs, then we would be able to consider what is the depth of withdrawal that we can afford. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: You know President Assad well. I mean, do you have a sense that his perception of what is needed and the Israeli perception is anywhere close? EHUD BARAK: No, it is not close at the present, but we are advancing gradually in quite a stable, even if not very fast, way. And it is for the first time in this Y Plantation dialogue that all the subjects are put on the table without preconditions and the positions are compared to each other and we exchange notes and maybe identify the domain of flexibility. I sat for two days, fifteen months ago, with the No. 2 in the Syrian hierarchy, chief of staff Mushiabi and the Blair House here and we could not at that time reach that level of openness that now is so--is coming so easily. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Why is it coming so easily? EHUD BARAK: I don't know the reason. Maybe the Syrians realized after the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin that their resistance that the peace process inside Israel is very serious, the whole peace process is very fragile. Secondly, maybe they realized that after we reach agreement with the Palestinians on Gaza plus Jericho and then the interim agreement that we are running right now and the election, maybe we'll enter within few months, the permanent state of negotiations, and they will find themselves left at the station, the train already left. And maybe they will--some other reason, maybe they notice the elections in Israel and in the United States, and they, they might be worried that a change of administration, a change of government might throw them back to square one. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Do you believe at this point that President Assad is ready for a contractual deal with Israel? EHUD BARAK: I--yeah, he is, of course, ready for a kind of contract that we had with Egypt some 17 years ago, namely full withdrawal to the last square meter, a full dismantling of all the settlements, no limitation of his, on his armed forces, and even supporting him financially and then normalizing a long, a very long period, but it might not be enough for us. We need the kind of peace that is implemented at the very early stages and that is much warmer at much earlier stage and with much heavier security--we don't have the desert of 150 miles that we have with Egypt. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Mr. Foreign Minister, let me turn briefly to the Palestinian elections over the weekend. What do you think was achieved by those? EHUD BARAK: First of all, a landslide victory that no American President or Israeli Prime Minister could expect by the chairman. It legitimizes and consolidates his control of his people, strengthened him in the Arab arena, and even with the Israel. But at the same time, it makes him a more appropriate address to demand from him to live up fully to his commitments in the agreements signed between us. Central to them is the commitment to a fight effectively against terrorism and the second one is to write off the covenant, Palestinian covenant, within 60 days after the establishment of the country. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: The covenant that called for Israel to be driven into the sea. EHUD BARAK: Yeah. The covenant that called for the destruction of Israel. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: You've met with President Clinton, secretary of state , members of Congress, and others. What role do you see the U.S. playing now in the peace process?
	U.S. role in the peace process.
	EHUD BARAK: I believe that the United States plays a major role in providing the atmosphere, the overall direction, providing that it facilitates the negotiation and tried to communicate between the leaders, themselves, the President until now did not meet with President Assad, and it's still impossible to meet, and I believe that the Americans will have a role when the whole thing becomes, if and when it becomes more rightfully, fully fledged negotiations to come with either ideas or even kind of helping to, to master the political energies of the rest of the world to keep the whole thing together. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: But have you asked for resources, for example, on the security, or resources in any other EHUD BARAK: Not at this stage, and you know, we are taking quite high risk, and we are strongly relied upon our qualitative edge in defending our country. We never asked anyone to come to our help. We asked to in the past to give us the tools, and we'll do the job, and really meant it, but we are very sensitive to the atmosphere here, and we need to bear in mind that anything that we provide suggests or request would not burden too much the American budget. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: The developments in the Palestinian--with the Palestinian elections, the Syrian talks, how are they going to affect the call for an early election, if at all? EHUD BARAK: My judgment is that government should govern until the last day of its mandate. I think that we do not fully control the negotiation with the Syrians. It takes two to tango and so at least 50 percent is in the Syrian hands, and we do not control fully the timing of election in Israel if we won't like to be tricky. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: What would determine whether or not there would be early elections? EHUD BARAK: I believe that only that we should not create any linkage between the Syrian track and the election in Israel; if we will try to create it, we will find ourselves facing a deadline, and might be manipulated by the Syrians when the deadline comes closer. Moreover, I don't think that politically it will help us. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: But if there is an early election, wouldn't that kill the talks, wouldn't that kill the peace talks, because of the preoccupation with things inside Israel? EHUD BARAK: If a breakthrough is not achieved, we will start for a while to run the election. We will turn back just after the election, back to the business of going ahead, ahead with the Syrian track and with the Palestinian permanent state of negotiation. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Mr. Foreign Minister, how is Israel dealing with the death of Prime Minister Rabin, the assassination? EHUD BARAK: I believe there is certain permanent imprint upon the collective memory of the Israeli nation. We have observed two interesting phenomenas. One is the youth becoming much more committed to political activity, and the whole nation I believe both left and right will be more united in its intention to crack on the extreme right elements that do not accept the state and the law and they would like to take weapons in order to decide the future of the state of Israel. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: What about politicians like the leader of the Likud opposition, Benjamin Netanjahu, whom Mrs. Rabin at the time accused, among others, of rhetoric contributing to the atmosphere that led to the assassination. has that all cooled down a bit and the political rhetoric has changed any?
	The Likud party.
	EHUD BARAK: I believe that on the political level the most important subject in the next elections will be the peace process with Syria and the continuation of peace forces with the Palestinians, and I don't think that the Likud leaders are directly connected to the assassination of Rabin, but they contributed clearly to the deterioration of the style of political debate in Israel, having demonstrations, bearing posters, colleague Rabin, traitor, Rabin murderer, something that we cannot afford and would not repeat. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Well, Mr. Foreign Minister, thank you for joining us. EHUD BARAK: Thank you.

REGIONS TOPICS RECENT PROGRAMS ABOUT US FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS / FEEDS:

Support the kind of journalism done by the NewsHour...Become a member of your local PBS station.
PBS Online Privacy Policy Copyright ©1996- MacNeil/Lehrer Productions. All Rights Reserved.