Memoir excerpt describing Shimon Peres urging Ehud Barak to assume Labor leadership after 1999 election

/ BARAK /9 seemed to defeat the purpose of going into politics in the first place. Still, I had no appetite for rushing into a challenge to Peres’s leadership, both because it was bound to be difficult for both of us, and frankly because it seemed rash, premature and maybe even unnecessary. Bibi was beginning the negotiations to form a government, and that process was likely to take at least a few weeks. Shimon had yet to signal whether he did intend to stay on. Still, when he invited me for a late-night chat at his apartment a week after the election, I was concerned he might raise the leadership issue and I knew that, if he did, I would have to be honest and open with him. The conversation went very differently than I’d expected. After he’d poured each of us a glass of Armagnac, and offered me a plate of Sonia’s cakes, he spoke for a while about Bibi, though he could not even bring himself to utter the name. This man, he said, knew nothing about leadership, much less about running the country. He would be outmaneuvered, overshadowed and ultimately controlled by the “real strongman” in the Likud: Arik Sharon. I said I thought we were again underestimating Bibi’s strength, as well as the effect of the country’s new electoral system. He was the first Prime Minister to enjoy a direct, personal mandate. That turned upside down the balance of power and influence in our politics. As he assembled his coalition, the other parties, if they wanted to be in government, would have to deal with him on his terms. So, to a much greater extent than before, would potential internal rivals. As we talked, I was struck that Shimon seemed resigned to the election defeat, relaxed, more at ease with himself than at any time since the start of the grueling campaign. Then, quite suddenly, he said: “Ehud, I understand the meaning of the election result. “You will have to take on the leadership, and lead the party.” He said he didn’t plan to spend the rest of his years hanging around the apartment. He would remain active — “working for peace” — but no longer in the party political arena. “I understand the meaning of what has happened,” he repeated. “I will pass the Labor leadership torch to you. We should find a way to do it quickly, and in the right way.” It was nearly three in the morning when I left. I was not just surprised, but touched, by what he’d said. Shimon was now nearly 73. He’d had a life in our country’s politics, and in Labor, stretching back to before the state, when he’d been a favored protégé of Ben-Gurion. Walking away was going to be hard. I was 295 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_011766