He'll provide Netanyahu with the fig leaf he's been desperately looking for. Thus the right-wing government will find it much easier to evade Barack Obama's pressure. Barak, an egomaniac, narcissistic flip-flopper with the strategic foresight of a blind owl has bungled Camp David before. And now this. I have nothing but contempt for him - Hannes Artens

Barak tells MKs: We must join coalition

Gil Hoffman | March 2

Jerusalem Post - Labor chairman Ehud Barak has called Labor MKs in recent days and told them that the party should join a national unity government led by Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu, sources close to Barak said Sunday. Barak's associates confirmed a Channel 2 report that he had called Labor MKs to check whether he could obtain a majority in the faction for joining the government, but that he might try to bring Labor into the coalition without his faction's support.

"We have to go in," Barak told the MKs. "Be on my side. I don't care if I don't have a majority in the faction. I can pass it in the central committee." A source close to Barak said the party leader felt it would be better for the country and for himself to remain defense minister, and that it was now a matter of persuading his party that this would not harm Labor.     more