Barak seems to Israelis a mix of hawk and dove

Barak appeals to Israelis ambivalent about peace with Arabs

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- In the eyes of Israelis, Prime Minister Ehud Barak is something of a split personality: part hawk and part dove.

Barak says he went further than any previous Israeli leader to try to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians during the Camp David summit with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in July.

Three months later, Israeli troops and Palestinians are battling in the streets, Barak has sent helicopter gunships into action against targets in two Palestinian-ruled cities and the peace process is in tatters.

Israel's use of force has been deemed excessive by the United Nations Security Council and Barak is contemplating forging a national emergency government with a right-wing hawk.

Barak, 58, says he still wants peace. But his more hawkish side now seems to be more in evidence.

"We were ready to go further than any previous government in Israel, be it Netanyahu or Shamir or even Rabin and Peres, in contemplating ideas that would put an end to it (conflict with Palestinians)," Barak told CNN , listing previous Israeli prime ministers.

"But if we won't find a partner with the same determination and clarity of objectives, we will fight to defend ourself and our right to live in freedom in this part of the world."

The heir to the "Mr. Security" legacy of the late peacemaker Yitzhak Rabin, Barak worked his way up to army chief during a military career spanning more than 30 years.

When Barak won election by a landslide 17 months ago, he told Israelis he wanted to be the prime minister of "e-v-e-r-y-one," stretching the word out as if to embrace the whole political spectrum.

Although political partners and pundits alike accuse him of being arrogant, distant and unable to focus on more than one issue at a time, Barak appeals to Israelis ambivalent about making peace with the Arabs.

Analysts say Barak, leader of the left-center One Israel faction, is part hawk and part dove. It's an ideal combination for Israelis demanding peace with security.

"Barak has always had a dual personality as far as the peace process is concerned. He is a split personality, peace process-wise," Chemi Shalev, diplomatic analyst for the newspaper Maariv, told Reuters.

"In many ways it reflects in a deeper sense the overall Israeli ambivalence toward the peace process and toward the question of whether peace is possible with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat."

A relative newcomer to the tug-of-war that passes for political life in Israel, Barak arrived at the Camp David peace summit with Arafat in July resolved to put his military wits to the task at hand.

He went in vowing to defy right-wing and religious coalition allies who bailed out of his government on the eve of the summit for fear he would risk the country's security and biblical birthright by giving up land.

"No one will teach me what security is," he retorted.

Then at Camp David, he reshaped political debate in Israel forever, breaking taboos one by one by considering a transfer of up to 95 percent of the West Bank to the Palestinians and sharing Jerusalem.

It just wasn't enough to secure a deal with Arafat.

Despite a meeting with Arafat last month which was intended to break the ice, negotiations have been stuck since the Camp David summit. The clashes that erupted on September 28 have further set back hopes of a breakthrough.

With his government now in tatters, violence raging and peacemaking in crisis, Barak has appealed to politicians left and right to join him in a "national emergency government" while trying to leave the door open to peace.

"We will never lose the hope of having peace with our Palestinian neighbors," Barak said Thursday.

But in effect, the "national emergency government" poses something of a threat to peacemaking with Arafat. While ensuring Barak's political survival, it would also indefinitely shelve the compromises advanced at Camp David.

When elected in May 1999, Barak promised to lift the economy while accelerating peace moves with Syria and the Palestinians and ending Israel's 22-year occupation of south Lebanon.

While opinion polls show he would defeat his rival, Likud party leader Ariel Sharon, if an election were held today, they also show him trailing Benjamin Netanyahu, the 50-year-old right-winger he trounced in the last election.

Netanyahu has yet to say whether he will end a self-imposed political "time-out," but he has been sounding ever more the candidate since Israel's attorney-general cleared him of corruption charges last month.

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