Talk:Ehud Barak

Court filings by US lawyer Alan Dershowitz revealed in 2020 that a woman named former prime minister Ehud Barak as one of a number of important men she was forced to have sex with by Jeffrey Epstein.

Lawyers for Virginia Roberts Giuffre had asked a court in Florida not to allow Dershowitz’s team access to sealed records as part of Dershowitz’s defamation case against her for saying she was forced to have sex with him while she was a teen, the Miami Herald reported, as they said they were concerned he would distort the information or use it out of context.

However, during the course of the hearing, Dershowitz’s attorney Howard Cooper said in court that the team had in fact already obtained some of the depositions and that Dershowitz identified Barak as well as L Brands and Victoria’s Secret owner Leslie Wexner as two of the men Giuffre says she was trafficked to by Epstein, a wealthy financier convicted of sex crimes and suspected of many more, the Herald reported.

“Giuffre has also alleged that she was forced to have sex with former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barack [sic],” the filing read in response to the claims against Dershowitz. “Giuffre has offered no proof other than her uncorroborated word."

Untitled

 * Ah, why was the picture changed from a decent picture to one where Barak is at a funeral ? Seems kinda insensitive, and he doesn't normally wear a yarmulke.

There was no quote, on that page stephen - just a excerpt from the quote - and it does not contradict the direct quote. Still, I admit, its not very flattering, if that what you meant to say...-Stevert


 * The quote on the page says "behave like crocodiles", which is much less inflamatory. It may be necessary to know the original Hebrew to see if there's been a mistranslation. --Stephen C. Carlson

I feel the quotes for Barak and other Israeli leaders are intetionally biased (see also Moshe Katsav and Ariel Sharon). This is especially discordant in Barak's case, since he's a leftist and often expressed with sympathy to the Palestinians. I will add the following quote which somewhat proves my point:

"If I were a Palestinian of the right age, I'd eventually join one of the terrorist organizations." --Yunis 21:26, 14 May 2005 (UTC)


 * You can add as many quotes as you want, just don't remove any.Yuber(talk) 23:39, 14 May 2005 (UTC)
 * Except, of course, if they come from dubious sources known to promote hoax quotations, or for many other good reasons. Jayjg (talk) 16:47, 16 May 2005 (UTC)
 * I hear he is friends with Jeffrey Epstein. Was he also involved in sacrificing babies? 105.243.21.107 (talk) 15:48, 4 May 2023 (UTC)

I've removed the quotations - in such a short article as this, giving brief, out of context quotations is bound to be misleading and unencyclopedic. john k 20:39, 10 July 2005 (UTC)

source of quotations
All 3 quotations are from SocialistViewpoint. The first line of their statement (Who We Are) reads: The Socialist Workers Organization was formed to advance the revolutionary Marxist political program in the United States. In the absence of any independent sourcing for this material, I think it must be considered propaganda and should be removed. Telliott 19:08, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Correction
"Barak" means "lightning" in Hebrew, not "thunder". I edited it on the page, but the citation is incorrect as well. I'm not sure how people want to handle that.


 * The similarity between "Barak" (or more properly, "Baraq"), and Barack Obama's first name is coincidental, even though both come from Semitic (as in the Language Group) roots. The Hebrew equivalent of Obama's first name is בָּרָוּך ("Barukh" = "Blessed").  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Josh-Levin@ieee.org (talk • contribs) 03:52, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

I just read a news article stating that Barak was a commando in an raid in May 1972 at Lod Airport. It doesnt mention Entebbee. Was he involved in both? §--Turbojet67 (talk) 20:34, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

References in popular culture
The section "References in Popular Culture" mentions the scene in Munich where Barak is mentioned by name and participates in Operation Spring of Youth dressed as a woman, but only states that it was "derived from a real life experience." Yet earlier in the article it clearly states that he did do exactly that in 1973, so I don't understand why the reference is suddenly so loosely associated with him. I'm going to clean that reference up, but if anyone has a differing viewpoint please let me know. Patrolmanno9 (talk) 01:04, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

Top priority?
I don't think Barak is top priority for WP Israel. Top priority is reserved for core topics, and this seems like an issue of recentism. If there's no objection, I'll lower the priority to High. -- Ynhockey (Talk) 10:58, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

Fictional character based on him
We had
 * Barak also appears as a military advisor to a fictitious Israeli Prime Minister in the Frederick Forsyth novel The Devil's Alternative

but it is not he who appears, nor even he who is depicted, only a fictchar named "Barak". (He was surely somewhere else, probably with real people, at the times when the novel presumably depicts "his" fictchar as advising the fictional PM.) Fixing the statement is probably a job for someone with access to the novel, in order to get the details right: perhaps it is a character sharing Barak's full name and given a résumé consistent with his history up to that time, but how can i say? For now, i made a pretty safe guess, substituting
 * A character apparently modeled on Barak ...

but IMO it is worth providing more detail about the degree of resemblance. --Jerzy•t 17:01, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Coastal road Massacre
A section in the Coastal Road Massacre was recently added again, alluding that Barak led the Israeli forces storming the buses with hostages in 1978. Lots of sources are quoted, none of them academic, though. I wonder how it can be if he was taking his courses at Stanford at exactly the same time.--Deinocheirus (talk) 20:59, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

Def Min
could we put this in the inofobox as well? its more current than the PM in there,(Lihaas (talk) 08:53, 17 January 2011 (UTC)).

Reverting
I am reverting the edit by NPz1. Reasoning: BRD. Breach of 1/rr invalidates it. As discussed in an edit summary before, the slight change of wording in the quote skews it. This along with the background not being present BLP issues. Easy enough to get something similar in and after the block, I invite you to participate on the talk page. If someone else wants to slightly tinker with it that would be cool to. I am not which is unfortunate but not mandatory.Cptnono (talk) 02:55, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Follow-up:Someone already reverted.Cptnono (talk) 02:55, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

61st-greatest Israeli of all time
Relevant enough for third paragraph? Polmandc (talk) 12:21, 9 December 2011 (UTC)

Evidence
What's the evidence for the following statement?" Barak's maternal grandparents, Elka and Shmuel Godin, died at the Treblinka extermination camp during the Holocaust.". There should be more then just a deportation list, if one makes such a statement. --41.151.123.235 (talk) 16:06, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Attempted to fix sourcing for http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/13/opinion/dont-give-up-on-mideast-peace.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20140730044641/http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MTA3OTE5NjI0NA to http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MTA3OTE5NjI0NA

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Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 28 February 2018
Please somebody move File:Flickr - Israel Defense Forces - Prime Minister and Defense Minister at Weaponry Display.jpg below the "return to politics" section to avoid WP:Sandwich.--יניב הורון (talk) 22:19, 28 February 2018 (UTC)
 * Wouldn't it be better if File:Barak pentagon 1999.jpg were removed, and the remaning pictures re-ordered in to chronological order? If this is to be done, would it be a good idea to move File:Ehud Barak with Legion of Merit cropped.jpg to the Military service section? Iffy★Chat -- 13:15, 1 March 2018 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the template. Given the visibility of this article and the potential for disagreements implicating WP:ARBPIA, a separate discussion will be opened below. Eggishorn (talk) (contrib) 21:08, 7 March 2018 (UTC)

Image use in this article
As pointed out by the two commenters above in the edit request, the current placement of images in the sections Political career through Return to Politics is less than optimal. Specific issues: To address these concerns, I suggest removing the first image, move the Barak/Clinton/Arafat image to the "Prime Minister of Israel" section and right-justifying it, and moving the Barak/Netanyahu image to the "Return to politics" seciton and also right-justifying it. This would address all the concerns above. This would result in the following:
 * 1) The image of Barak in uniform with the Legion of Merit in 1993 (File:Ehud Barak with Legion of Merit cropped.jpg) is anchored in the Military service section but pushed quite far downwards by the extensive infobox to look like it illustrates the "Prime Minister of Israel" section.
 * 2) The image of Barak, Clinton, and Arafat (File:Arafat&Clinton&Barak.jpg) and the image of Barak and Netanyahu (File:Flickr - Israel Defense Forces - Prime Minister and Defense Minister at Weaponry Display.jpg) are both left-justified, creating a MOS:SANDWICHING problem.
 * 3) The of Barak at the Pentagon (File:Barak pentagon 1999.jpg)) is from 1999 at the time of his premiership but is also displaced to apparently illustrate the Resignation section.
 * 4) These issues combine to present the images out of chronological order, in something like 1999-1993-2011-1999-2007 order.  This is, at the very least, questionable under MOS:PERTINENCE.

 ==Political career== 

On 7 July 1995, Barak was appointed Minister of Internal Affairs by Yitzhak Rabin. When Shimon Peres formed a new government following Rabin's assassination in November 1995, Barak was made Minister of Foreign Affairs (1995–96). He was elected to the Knesset on the Labor Party list in 1996, and served as a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Following internal elections after Peres' defeat in the election for Prime Minister in 1996, Barak became the leader of the Labor Party.

 ===Prime Minister of Israel=== 

In the 1999 Prime Ministerial election, Barak beat Benjamin Netanyahu by a wide margin. However, he sparked controversy by deciding to form a coalition with the ultra-Orthodox party Shas, who had won an unprecedented 17 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. Shas grudgingly agreed to Barak's terms that they eject their leader Aryeh Deri, a convicted felon, and enact reform to "clean up" in-party corruption. Consequentially, the left wing Meretz party quit the coalition after they failed to agree on the powers to be given to a Shas deputy minister in the Ministry of Education.

In 1999 Barak gave a campaign promise to end Israel's 22-year-long occupation of Southern Lebanon within a year. On 24 May 2000 Israel withdrew from Southern Lebanon. On 7 October, three Israeli soldiers were killed in a border raid by Hezbollah and their bodies were subsequently captured. The bodies of these soldiers, along with the living Elhanan Tenenbaum, were eventually exchanged for Lebanese captives in 2004.

The Barak government resumed peace negotiations with the PLO, stating that "Every attempt [by the State of Israel] to keep hold of this area [the West Bank and Gaza] as one political entity leads, necessarily, to either a nondemocratic or a non-Jewish state. Because if the Palestinians vote, then it is a binational state, and if they don't vote it is an apartheid state." As part of these negotiations, Barak took part in the Camp David 2000 Summit which was meant finally to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict but failed. Barak also allowed Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami to attend the Taba Summit with the leadership of the Palestinian Authority, after his government had fallen.

 ===Domestic issues=== 

On 22 August 1999, Barak appointed the Tal committee which dealt with the controversial issue of ultra-Orthodox Jews' exemption from military service. Following the failure of the Camp David summit with Arafat and Bill Clinton in the summer of 2000, when the original 7 years mandate of the PNA expired, and just after Israel pulled out its last troops out of southern Lebanon in May 2000, the weeks-long Riots in October 2000 led to the killing of twelve Israeli Arabs and one Palestinian by Israel Police and one Jewish civilian by Israeli Arabs.

 ===Resignation=== 

In 2001, Barak called a special election for Prime Minister. In the contest, he was defeated by Likud leader Ariel Sharon, and subsequently resigned as Labor leader and from the Knesset. He left Israel to work as a senior advisor with United States-based Electronic Data Systems. He also partnered with a private equity company focused on "security-related" work.

 ===Return to politics===  In 2005, Barak announced his return to Israeli politics, and ran for leadership of the Labor Party in November. However, in light of his weak poll showings, Barak dropped out of the race early and declared his support for veteran statesman Shimon Peres. Following his failed attempt to maintain leadership of the Labor party, Barak became a partner of the investment company SCP Private Equity Partners, Pennsylvania. He also established a company "Ehud Barak Limited" which is thought to have made over NIS 30 million.

Opinions are appreciated on this change. Eggishorn (talk) (contrib) 21:52, 7 March 2018 (UTC)
 * Looks like a good solution, better than the one I proposed. Pinging the original requester for their feedback. Iffy★Chat -- 14:46, 8 March 2018 (UTC)
 * I think the lack of objection so far constitutes silent consensus in favor of the changes. I will implement these image adjustments but if anyone requests, I will gladly self-revert in favor of more discussion.  Thank you. Eggishorn (talk) (contrib) 16:06, 11 March 2018 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 16 August 2018
Under External links, Please remove the Official site (in hebrew) as it is not the official site and has no affiliation to Ehud Barak. This so called "Official site" was also added in most other languages besides Hebrew. Blue2White (talk) 09:06, 16 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done My Hebrew is rather rusty, but looking at the site, it looks pretty likely that you are correct. Thank you! Dolotta (talk) 16:26, 16 August 2018 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 1 April 2019
Please change http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/bar0int-1 to https://www.achievement.org/achiever/ehud-barak/#interview PippaDiggs (talk) 20:15, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done MrClog (talk) 13:47, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 1 April 2019
Please change

to PippaDiggs (talk) 20:34, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Pictogram voting wait.svg Already done MrClog (talk) 13:47, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

Barak & J. E.
This section should be added to Barak's page. It is mentioned repeatedly on JE's page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.210.28.107 (talk) 12:26, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

Since no one has added this section yet there is some information about the relationship between Barak and J.E. on J.E.'s page.

Any objections to adding this information to the article?

Here is the information from the Jeffrey Epstein page:

Israeli startup

In 2015, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Epstein invested in the startup Reporty Homeland Security (rebranded as Carbyne in 2018). The startup is connected with Israel's defense industry. It is headed by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who was also at one time the defense minister, and chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The CEO of the company is Amir Elihai who was a special forces officer, and Pinchas Bukhris, who is a director of the company, was at one time the defense ministry director general and commander of the IDF cyber unit 8200.[66] Epstein and Barak, the head of Carbyne, were close, and Epstein often offered him lodging at one of his apartment units at 301 East 66th Street in Manhattan.

09:21, 16 August 2019 (UTC) 91.114.251.169 (talk) 08:29, 14 August 2019 (UTC)

Here's some more information that fit into this section:

Future addition "In 2016 Barak was caught on camera entering Epstein's Manhattan mansion with his face covered and closely followed by four young women, despite his claims he has 'never met Epstein in the company of women or young girls.'"

Source (with photographs): https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7250009/Netanyahu-challenger-Ehud-Barak-hides-face-enters-entering-Jeffrey-Epsteins-mansion.html

91.114.251.169 (talk) 09:25, 16 August 2019 (UTC)

Since no one has added this section yet here are some links with information about the relationship between Barak and Jeffrey Epstein

from 2015: "In 2015, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Epstein invested in the startup Reporty Homeland Security (rebranded as Carbyne in 2018). The startup is connected with Israel's defense industry. It is headed by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who was also at one time the defense minister, and chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)."

Sources: https://www.timesofisrael.com/barak-says-he-visited-epstein-at-home-but-didnt-attend-sex-parties/

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-revealed-jeffrey-epstein-entered-million-dollar-partnership-with-ehud-barak-in-2015-1.7493648

https://www.businessinsider.com/epstein-former-israel-prime-minister-barak-defends-business-ties-with-2019-7

from 2019: "Married 77 year old Israeli politician Ehud Barak was caught on camera hiding his face and sneaking into Jeffrey Epstein’s NYC townhouse in 2016; a group of young beauties also were spotted going in shortly after." "“I was there, for lunch or chat, nothing else. So what?” Barak snapped, defending himself. “I never attended a party with him. I never met Epstein in the company of women or young girls.”" "The former PM confirmed that he had also been to Little St. James, Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands, even after revelations that Epstein used the island for underage sex." | Ehud Barak Went Into Epstein Mansion With Face Covered Photos Surface of Ex-Israeli PM Having Dealings With Known Pedophile

From 2019: "Epstein and Barak, the head of Carbyne, were close, and Epstein often offered him lodging at one of his apartment units at 301 East 66th Street in Manhattan."

Sources: https://www.businessinsider.com/the-nyc-building-at-the-center-of-jeffrey-epsteins-web-2019-8

https://www.thedailybeast.com/jeffrey-epstein-israeli-politician-ehud-barak-often-crashed-at-his-manhattan-apartment-neighbors-say

Any objections to adding this information to the article?

DannyS712 (talk) 01:26, 17 August 2019 (UTC)
 * This edit does not reflect my own views - I made this edit for User:91.114.251.169 because their edit was blocked by an edit filter. See Special:Permalink/911174080 --DannyS712 (talk) 01:27, 17 August 2019 (UTC)

Wartime cross-dresser
He's included in the wartime cross-dressers category but there's no mention of that in the article. Could someone please add a source for that? Swil999 (talk) 14:21, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

Literary awards to be added?
The Jewish Book Council awarded Ehud Barak the National Jewish Book Award as described below. Is it significant enough to be added to the article? Lemieuxn (talk) 05:08, 18 January 2020 (UTC)
 * 2018: National Jewish Book Award in the category biography, autobiography and memoir for My Country, My Life: Fighting for Israel, Searching for Peace

Insert
Hello I am inserting the Current related template because there were reports that the article may be affected by the Wikipedia Article Ghislaine Maxwell due to a recent mentioning of the Epstein Sex trafficking Scandal Personisgaming (talk) 00:53, 22 July 2020 (UTC)

Long friendship with child-rapist and child-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and accusation of rape.
Please include the following information (page seems to be protected for edits): https://www.timesofisrael.com/woman-says-epstein-forced-her-to-have-sex-with-former-pm-barak/ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7250009/Netanyahu-challenger-Ehud-Barak-hides-face-enters-entering-Jeffrey-Epsteins-mansion.html --CarlPhilippTrump.me (talk) 20:40, 31 July 2020 (UTC)

Jeffery Epstein
Kinda amazed his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is not including as with all the other accused. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nice Stories (talk • contribs) 19:08, 10 August 2020 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 12 February 2021
He is now 79, not 78. Jhunter92 (talk) 05:56, 12 February 2021 (UTC)
 * not sure where you want this edited, because the only "78" I can find is in the "1978" located in the last sentence of the first section? The information box lists him as "79". Perhaps if you were to refresh the page in your browser?  P.I. Ellsworth   ed.  put'r there 16:03, 12 February 2021 (UTC)


 * Thanks, it was fixed. All set now! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jhunter92 (talk • contribs) 00:04, 13 February 2021 (UTC)
 * awesome, and thank you for your input! (see also WP:SIG)  P.I. Ellsworth   ed.  put'r there 22:42, 13 February 2021 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 7 July 2021
Add Category:Leaders of the Opposition (Israel). Quacelinz3 (talk) 20:20, 7 July 2021 (UTC)
 * ✅   Mel ma nn   17:15, 9 July 2021 (UTC)

Typo to be corrected
Under the subsection "military career", there is a typo: it mentions "Barack" instead of "Barak" in the second paragraph Baswerkhoven (talk) 18:06, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

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Ehud Baraks recent call for violence
In the Political life section; I see no mention of Ehud Barak's recent controversial statements telling IDF soldiers that it was their duty to refuse to show up. And no mention of the subsuquent Likud lawsuit against him. Can this be added? InLizWeTruss (talk) 01:18, 14 April 2023 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 22 September 2023
At one point, the article quotes a statement by Barak that ends "it is an apartheid state". Please remove the apartheid link and replace it with apartheid state. This doesn't change the wording, and obviously he was saying that Israel would be the subject of the Israel and apartheid article under those conditions. 123.51.107.94 (talk) 02:19, 22 September 2023 (UTC)
 * I've updated it to apartheid state as the most direct linked term (and one that does not involve any hint of being an Easter Egg link). This seems like the most appropriate option in the context. Iskandar323 (talk) 06:58, 22 September 2023 (UTC)

Political activity in recent years
Ehud Barak has been very active in organising and directing public political activities against Israeli governments since 2019, coming to a head in 2023. He has publicly spoken about these issues many times and this is certainly a significant part of his (still ongoing) political career.

Why is there no mention of this ? דןברקת (talk) 06:15, 19 December 2023 (UTC)