Ex-Israel PM says Netanyahu endangering Zionist project

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has opened fire on incumbent Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, describing him as a threat to the establishment of a Zionist state in Israel.

In a lecture held in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, Barak described the current Israeli government as “dark, nationalist government”, according to the Israeli Yediot Ahronot newspaper on Wednesday.

“The single inevitable result of this purpose is Israel’s decay into a nation with a Muslim majority [with] constant internal violence and strife, and one that is not Jewish, Zionist, or democratic,” he said.

Barak argued Netanyahu’s refusal of accepting the two-state solution would thwart the possibility of separating from the Palestinians.

That government, he said, was busy “setting Israelis against each other and sowing the seeds of hatred of foreigners, weak populations, and minorities”.

Barak, 75, had served as Israel’s prime minister from 1999 to 2001.

In December, Barak, in a New York Times op-ed, said the Netanyahu government was endangering the entire Zionist project as it inches closer to an annexation of the West Bank, “precluding any permanent separation from the Palestinians.”

U.S.-sponsored peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel collapsed in 2014 over the latter’s refusal to halt settlement building in the occupied territories.