Representatives of the leaders of the two largest parties in the present coalition, Tzipi Livni of Kadima and Ehud Barak of Labor, signed an agreement on the eve of Sukkot to form the next government, to be headed by Livni. This is an important and desirable step. Now is no time for elections. The parties that formed the outgoing government two and half years ago must continue their partnership and stabilize the incoming government as well.
Unfortunately, Barak missed the opportunity to present to the public an updated ID card for his party, via the agreement with Kadima. The party looks like a faded copy of Kadima, one more in a large bloc of centrist parties. It is not clear where Kadima ends and Labor begins.
Barak's talent and accomplishments throughout his public career, first in the army and then in politics and in the cabinet, have earned him a large measure of respect, if not always affection. The coalition agreement shows him in a much less flattering light, as a chaser of empty symbols of status and authority rather than someone who stands on substance.
Ostensibly the agreement brings Barak victory in the war for status [the Hebrew word, ma'amad, also means "class"] - not in the old sense of the working class, which Labor once championed, but Barak's personal status. The man who was the most decorated soldier in the Israel Defense Forces now wants to be the most decorated politician in the government.
The title that Barak demanded was "senior deputy prime minister, second only to the prime minister." In order to leave no room for doubt, in case the commoners make the mistake of thinking that the acting prime minister or the deputy prime minister are more senior in rank than the senior deputy, Article 3 in the agreement makes it clear that Barak's status "is senior to the status of any other minister, regardless of his title." This formula guarantees a headache for the Foreign Ministry's master of protocol when lining up ministers according to their status, particularly during the visits of important foreign dignitaries. Moreover, only in the absence of both the prime minister and her acting prime minister from the country will Livni authorize Barak - of course only "insofar as necessary," and who will decide what is necessary and how far? - to convene and conduct cabinet meetings.
There is an evident effort to reconstruct the arrangement between Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Shamir in the rotation government of 1984-1988, but with a strange innovation: a law that will enable Barak to be the head of the opposition, if he decides not to be in the coalition. With all due respect to Barak, until now it was not known that this honor affords him a place between Yigal Allon and David Levy, each of whom in his day insisted on the relatively meaningless title of deputy prime minister.
Barak of course needs the support of the Labor MKs and his party's central committee, but his real test will be not in the coming weeks, when the agreement is submitted to the party's institutions for approval - if Livni succeeds in forming a government - but before the next elections. Until then the public will be able to judge Barak's seriousness as a leader who promised to bring about significant changes, including in the rule of law, which during the past two years has been under attack from within the government that Barak joined. This test of leadership, and not a title and status, will determine whether Barak is not only a senior member of the government, but also an outstanding one.
