Palestine

After Gaza War Defeat Zionist Minister for Military Affairs Decides to Resign

Israeli Minister for Military Affairs Ehud Barak has announced his plans to end his political career.

Barak announced on Monday that he is retiring from politics and will not contend in the parliamentary elections on January 22, AFP reported.

“I have decided to resign from political life and not participate in the upcoming Knesset elections,” he said at a press conference in Tel Aviv.

“I will finish my duties with the formation of the next government in three months,” Barak added.

The Israeli official said, “I have exhausted politics and I want to dedicate more time to my family.”

Barak noted that he had been considering quitting for some time, but the recent Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip delayed his decision.

Barak, 70, served as Israel’s 14th chief of staff and has a 36-year military career.

Six months after leaving the army in 1995, he entered politics and assumed the role of interior minister under Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. He was later named foreign minister.

Barak was elected chairman of the Israeli Labor party in 1997. He defeated Benjamin Netanyahu in the 1999 prime ministerial election.

In May 2000, he led the Israeli army’s retreat from south Lebanon.

He was defeated by Likud leader Ariel Sharon in the 2001 election, and subsequently resigned as Labor leader and from the Knesset.

Barak announced his return to Israeli politics in 2005, and ran for the leadership of the Labor Party in November of that year.

After winning back the leadership of the Labor party in 2007, Barak was sworn in as Minister for Military Affairs as part of Israeli Prime Minister Olmert’s cabinet.

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