| --- |
| title: "House Oversight: Estate Documents (Nov 12) (HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_011777)" |
| source: "House Oversight: Estate Documents (Nov 12)" |
| sourceUrl: "https://www.justice.gov/epstein" |
| date: "2026-01-01" |
| category: "House Oversight" |
| eftaNumber: "HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_011777" |
| ocrPages: 1 |
| ocrChars: 2375 |
| ocrElapsed: 0.0 |
| parseTier: "external-legacy" |
| engine: "engine undisclosed (ep-nov-12.greg.technology mirror)" |
| externalSource: "greg-ep-nov-12" |
| externalLicense: "not granted" |
| externalCredit: "ep-nov-12.greg.technology" |
| externalUrl: "https://ep-nov-12.greg.technology" |
| --- |
| |
| / BARAK / 20 |
| before me, provoked more left-wing parties like Meretz to suggest that if I really |
| wanted peace, I'd be ready to give away more, and more quickly. |
| My position wasn't helped by the way I had come over in the media during my |
| first months as Labor leader. A number of newspaper commentators wrote that |
| while they found talking with me stimulating, I seemed to be operating in a world |
| of my own, either unable or unwilling to give straight answers and a single, clear |
| message. They were right about that. If asked a question, especially one which |
| obviously involved an issus of nuance, my instinct was not to come up with a |
| sound bite. It was, as best I could, to answer fully and accurately. The difficulties |
| that could sometime cause hit home in an interview with a leading Israeli journalist |
| in the spring of 1998. He asked how my life might have turned out if I'd been born |
| and raised not as a kibbutznik, but a Palestinian. I answered: "At some stage, I |
| would have entered one of the terror organizations and fought from there, and later |
| would certainly have tried to influence from within the political system." I did |
| hasten to add that I abhorred terrorists, describing their actions as "abominable... |
| villainous." But that was lost in the political storm that followed. All I'd done was |
| answer as honestly I could. What if I had been one of the Palestinian babies in |
| Wadi Khawaret, but with the same mind and same impulses that had defined my |
| life as an Israeli? I assumed that instead of becoming an Israeli soldier and |
| politician, I would have become the closest thing to a Palestinian equivalent. Still, |
| as even my brother-in-law, Doron Cohen, told me when he phoned a couple of |
| hours later, it was not the most astute thing to say as a potential candidate for |
| Prime Minister. |
| None of this might have mattered if I'd been able to show I was bringing Labor |
| nearer to defeating Bibi. But the only measure of progress that the media paid |
| attention to was the opinion polls. Briefly, in late 1977, I did pull ahead, during the |
| period leading up to Bibi's agreement to pull out of most of Hebron. But for much |
| of 1998, I was running behind, and questions about my leadership surfaced |
| publicly by the summer. The media commentators spoke of the need for a Labor |
| "liftoff." Why, after a full year as leader, had I failed to deliver it? |
| 306 |
| HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_011777 |
|
|
