If there were an Israel Prize for humbleness and modesty, I doubt Ehud Barak would be a candidate. He coolly compares himself to David Ben-Gurion, who returned from Sde Boker as a defense minister to save the country from Pinhas Lavon, father of the 1954 screw-up dubbed "the Mishap." He compares himself to Moshe Dayan, who was called to the Defense Ministry in 1967 when the threat of attack loomed over Israel and mass graves were being dug in the public parks.

After more than a year of the surrealistic government headed by Ehud Olmert, which led Israel into its most humiliating war ever, "the steering wheel is back in steady hands," Barak says of himself. The public can sleep soundly at night in the wake of his speedy appointment as defense minister, he humbly added. The Hamas takeover of Gaza is a serious threat, and one Barak as defense minister, right here on the battlefront, is better than two Peretzes, Amir and his wife, Ahlama, at the Paris air show (a kind of consolation prize for the outgoing minister, for all his successes, but which at the last minute was canceled).

Peretz, who festively announced that the "ethnic genie was dead and buried" when he was elected Labor Party chairman, has pulled it out again, now that he has been given the boot. As Israel's most clueless defense minister in matters of defense, he has some nerve complaining about not getting enough respect.

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"I'm a pussy cat compared to Peretz," Barak fumes. Before Peretz goes around playing insulted, he should remember how he himself behaved toward the losers when he won the Labor chairmanship. For example, bursting into the office of Shimon Peres, 35 years his senior, without knocking on the door, and handing him a resignation letter. "Sign this," he told Peres, and Peres, shocked and humiliated, picked up a pen and signed. When Peres fumbled in his diary to look up the date, Peretz grabbed the paper away and said: "Forget it, I'll fill in the date." Then he went and found Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who was making a phone call. He squeezed into the telephone booth and made him sign a letter, too.

Peretz is playing a double role, says Barak. He alternates between victim and son of the gods. When he wins he is an immortal; when he loses he is the victim, discriminated against by his ethnic origins. (Incidentally, he says, Peres is the Ashkenazi version of perennial victimhood.)

In our world, says Barak, victimhood and whining about ethnic prejudice are a lot of baloney. They don't constitute a strategic plan. Politicians and statesmen are entirely responsible for their own successes and failures. You can't bury the ethnic genie and then use it as an excuse for making a mess of things.

According to Barak, this speedy appointment wasn't his idea, but Olmert's, before his meeting with President Bush. At this meeting, which is especially important, Olmert wanted his chief coalition partner already in office. The American president has another year and a half to go. That isn't much, but it is enough to reach understandings on two issues: our joint interest in opening a channel of dialogue that will cut Syria loose from Iraq and Iran, and our joint interest in damage control in the territories.

Whenever Menachem Begin left for Washington, he used to shake hands with the chief of staff, Rafael (Raful) Eitan, and tell him to "watch over the country." But while he was in Washington, it was more important to him to keep the lines open with Moshe Dayan at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv.

According to Barak, he was the one who informed Peretz that the change of guard was being pushed up because of the security situation. There was no time for three weeks of wrangling over coalition talks and ministerial appointments. When Peretz won the Labor chairmanship, he made himself defense minister overnight. He practically grabbed it, never considering whether or not he was up to the task.

Barak, the natural candidate for defense minister and the man most suited for the job, promised in private conversations to live up to his promise that if the Winograd Committee recommends that Olmert step down, Ehud and Ehud would not remain together in the same coalition.

Peretz proposed an overlap in the transfer of duties. What for? To teach the Israeli army's most decorated soldier how to win a war without knowing a thing about defense? Only when it sank in that he would be fired, and the best offer, for now, was minister without portfolio, did Peretz pull out his secret weapon, i.e., the "mortal offense" defense: I'd rather quit than be minister without portfolio.

And Barak the pussy cat, as he calls himself, has proven that he is not so changed after all. His claws are as sharp as ever.