An angry exchange of words took place at Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

It is no secret that the two senior ministers have not enjoyed an ideal working relationship, but one would expect two senior government officials to be in line and hold the same position regarding talks with Hamas, which by all accounts is not a trivial matter that could be handled by one minister without others being aware.

Barak insisted that negotiations with Hamas are ongoing while the prime minister stated there are no talks and Barak’s statements are baseless.

The dispute began following a briefing from Chief of Military Intelligence Major-General Amos Yadlin, who stated Egypt is conducting talks with Hamas regarding a ceasefire, which may include concessions pertaining to the Gaza/Egyptian border. Olmert stated there are no such talks taking place at present and Israel is not involved in any process with Gaza. His words were contradicted by Barak, who concurred with the intelligence chief.

Barak added that every military operation ended with an agreement, adding talks are taking place towards achieving that goal and a number of issues are being addressed, including weapons smuggling and the border to Egypt.

Taking the prime minister’s side, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni interrupted stating that following Operation Defensive Shield there was no agreement. Barak nevertheless ignored Livni’s remarks and continued his verbal assault against Olmert. He added that today, we could be in a different situation if we would have been working on a ceasefire agreement.

Olmert was not permitting his defense minister to have the last word added “you wanted talks but the foreign minister was adamant in her objections and I said we will not do anything until Gilad Shalit is released. Only then would we do whatever we can to restore ‘normal life’ on the other side. In June 2008, Israel entered into an agreement [with Hamas] lacking any substance due to the insistence of the defense minister. This time, I did not wish to see a repeat performance. I wanted to make sure an agreement covered numerous possibilities so we knew what the response would be to rocket fire in accordance to our interests. We will reach an understanding through Egypt but only after the Shalit issue is resolved.

“Now the question remains if we should open Gaza crossings and acquiesce to Hamas demands or wait until the Shalit matter is resolved or do we use our leverage achieved in Operation Cast Lead to end the Shalit affair and then discuss opening crossings. What the defense minister is saying here is there was no need for the operation. After the military success, he says put everything aside and agree with Hamas’ demands, which we could have done before the operation”.

Despite widespread reports confirming the argument, officials in the Prime Minister’s Office deny the accuracy of the report.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)