Barak's coalition feelers cause rift among top Laborites

Senior Labor party officials are accusing their party's chairman, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, of going behind their backs in an effort to lay the groundwork for the Labor party to join Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government. The officials have warned Barak of the danger that this would create a split in the party.

Efforts in the party to block Labor from joining a Netanyahu-led government have been gaining momentum. On Tuesday the party's young guard held an emergency meeting on the issue. At the conclusion of the meeting, they called on Barak to stop all contacts with Netanyahu on joining the government, with the added caveat that if there was no response to their request within 48 hours, they would act to try to depose Barak as party leader.

It is anticipated that Barak will meet with Netanyahu by the weekend. The Likud leader is expected to offer Barak a senior role in the coalition, as defense minister, in addition to four other ministerial posts for Labor in the social affairs and economic spheres.

Within the Labor party, Barak's approach has been received with astonishment and anger because despite his pronouncements about going into opposition, he has been seen as attempting to clear the way toward joining a Netanyahu government. Barak has made it clear that if Netanyahu made him an acceptable offer, he would bring it to to the Labor party for a decision. MK and former Labor chairman Amir Peretz has been highly critical of Barak in this regard, and said that if Barak brought such a proposal to the party, he would be responsible for Labor's inability to rehabilitate itself.

Commenting on reports that Barak was trying to enlist President Shimon Peres in an effort to bring Labor into the government, MK Ophir Pines-Paz called the efforts "a disgrace that hurts the institution of the presidency and must be stopped immediately."