Olmert to Barak: You're negating achievements of Gaza op

An argument broke out Sunday morning between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak over the handling of the conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Military Intelligence Chief Amos Yadlin briefed the cabinet at its weekly meeting, when Olmert said "I have never agreed to a deal with Hamas," adding that anyone who offers Hamas a deal, like Barak did, is sabotaging the gains achieved during Israel's recent offensive in the Gaza Strip, which was launched in efforts to halt rocket fire from the Strip into Israel.

Israel ended its 22-day offensive, dubbed Operation Cast Lead, on January 18, with a unilateral cease-fire declared by both sides, and efforts to forge a lasting truce between Israel and Hamas have stalled.

Directing his comment at Barak, Olmert declared that forging an agreement with Hamas "makes the military offensive worthless."

Yadlin, in his briefing, told the cabinet that "during Cast Lead we established deterrence, and that is why Hamas is now willing to compromise where it wasn't willing to compromise before. The Egyptians are holding talks with Hamas on a cease-fire agreement with Israel's support."

At this point, Olmert cut him off, saying "there are no cease-fire talks with Hamas."

Yadlin said other groups are responsible for the rockets being fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel and that Hamas is afraid to fire rockets itself.

"Hamas prefers to reach a truce agreement that will open border crossings and enable reconstruction," Yadlin said.

On attempts to form a Palestinian unity government, Yadlin said that "the common interest of Fatah and Hamas is likely to bring a government of experts that will focus on the reconstruction of Gaza and on the advancement of elections", but added that it would not be a government that could bridge ideological gaps.

Yadlin said Hezbollah is still deterred by Israel and is acting with restraint, adding that the financial crisis had curbed the organization's ability to finance its election campaigns and military activities.

After Yadlin was finished with his briefing, Barak addressed the Gaza issue, saying "there are talks the include elements of a cease-fire agreement, like the issue of arms smuggling [into Gaza] and the border crossings. All of Israel's wars ended with some kind of cease-fire agreement."

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni quickly chimed in, saying "that's not true. Operation Defensive Shield did not end with an agreement," referring to the operation carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in the West Bank in the spring of 2002.

Barak retorted that "the operation [Cast Lead] was a success, and we said in advance that it wouldn't bring the rocket fire to a complete halt. But we could have found ourselves in a different situation now if we had been willing to discuss an agreement."

Olmert wrapped up the meeting, interjecting his summation with criticism against Barak. "You know that there were no talks on any agreement. You know it isn't true," Olmert said to Barak, "even though you wanted it. But the foreign minister objected and I said that we must solve the issue of [abducted Israeli soldier] Gilad Shalit first and only then do anything that could translate into normal life for the other side."

According to Olmert, "a cease-fire deal that Israel agreed upon in June 2008 was ambiguous, at the request of the defense minister, and wasn't organized, just ambiguous. This time, I didn't want to repeat the same mistake and wanted that our conditions will be met first. But the defense minister preferred to leave things ambiguous this time around as well. If the cease-fire achieved anything, it was the recruiting of international support for Operation Cast Lead."

Olmert added that the momentum created during the Gaza offensive must be harnessed in order to advance the release of Gilad Shalit. "What the defense minister is saying here," he said, "is that there was no need for the military offensive, and that we should set aside all that it achieved, because we're not utilizing our achievements to propel the Gilad Shalit issue and to achieve quiet in the south."