Barak should actually be quite satisfied
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not heed Barak's request to postpone the cabinet discussion on taking away his ministry's powers to approve settlement construction until the latter's return from France. The two were constantly on the phone between Paris and Jerusalem, but Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman was adamant that the transfer of power be carried out without delay, and his request was granted. Barak opted not to respond, so as not to concede that he had lost to Liberman. Yet another clash of egos over who wins the heart of the ego in charge.
Barak's office tried to downplay the humiliation and pretended as if nothing had happened. The Prime Minister's Office stated that although they did not wait until Barak's return, the decision was changed in his favor. Whereas it initially mandated that he be consulted on settlement construction, the final version stipulates that actions must be coordinated with him. Barak took comfort in the fact that he is still indispensable.
The big losers in all this are Netanyahu and Barak. Anyone who follows politics will tell you that the prime minister is in no hurry to approve any new settlements these days. He is waging a rear-guard battle merely over Israel's unfettered right to do so. Time and again his tireless efforts to preserve the good relations vis-à-vis the United States are frustrated by bureaucrats affiliated with the ultra-orthodox right-wing Shas party in Jerusalem, who spring-up out of nowhere and approve housing plans in East Jerusalem, triggering a crisis. What happened during Vice President Joe Biden's visit in 2010 was not just a one-time event.
But when it comes to the West Bank, it is Barak who plays the role of the Shas bureaucrats. For the past two years he has been taking the heat for the prime minister, effectively serving as his flak jacket. Each time settlers lay demands at Netanyahu's doorstep his only retort has been that his hands are tied - authority lies with Barak. This has been very convenient. Many regimes assemble such protective rings around the top figure, as a buffer between them and various flash points. Upon assuming powers over settlement construction, Netanyahu has opened the floodgates for severe pressure to be exerted directly on him.
The settler community has had unfettered access to the Prime Minister's Office, they fill the ranks of the Likud. But with Barak their influence is limited. And in this sense Barak has it all wrong: he will not win supporters on the left for stalling settlement construction, nor is he going to garner popularity on the right by signing a construction permit. This authority is nothing but a burden on him, and it would have been wiser for him to have told Netanyahu that he has been waiting for the moment to relinquish it.
This new situation does have its upside. The settlers will now come to the realization that the delays in construction are a product of the complex state of relations between Israel and the Western countries, not Barak's hostility.
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