Ehud Barak

Israel Radio reports that Defense Minister Ehud Barak says Iran will have the technology to build a nuclear bomb early next year and will be able to produce one in 2011. Defense Minister Ehud Barak delivered this assessment before the Israeli parliament's defense and foreign affairs committee. The Defense Ministry said it could not confirm the report, and a Barak spokesman wasn't immediately available for comment. Israel rejects Tehran's claims that its nuclear program is designed to produce... Read Full Story

Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak has found himself in hot water amid revelations that the former premier had hired a Filipina maid without a work permit. Barak and his wife Nili had for several months employed a Filipina cleaner who did not have a work permit and did not undergo the required security checks by the Shin Bet domestic security agency, public radio reported. In a statement, Barak's office said that the woman was "an occasional employee who used to, but no longer, works at... Read Full Story

Iran vowed it will cling on to its right to enrich uranium to more than five percent purity even if it strikes a deal for a third party to do the work, as Israel came out against any such deal. "As we have said before, we will not give up our rights," Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, was quoted as saying by state-owned Iran newspaper on Thursday. Full details of an enrichment agreement between the Islamic Republic and international powers will be unveiled on... Read Full Story

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak branded as "absurd" a bid to have him arrested as he attended the governing Labour party's annual conference in Britain. Pro-Palestinian activists lodged an application in a London court for the arrest warrant over Israel's offensive in Gaza in 2008, which left more than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead. The request was denied by a judge after a hearing on the grounds of diplomatic immunity for Barak, according to lawyers who filed the application... Read Full Story

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak on Wednesday hailed a US move to create a sea-borne anti-missile shield to ward off Iranian threats in place of a planned system in eastern Europe that angered Russia. "We've listened very carefully to the American argumentation about the change in policy," Barak told reporters during a visit to Poland, where Washington had planned to base a battery of missile interceptors. "The new approach really provides more flexibility and, in a relatively short time... Read Full Story

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak paid a private visit to the World War II-era Nazi German Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps Thursday, the Auschwitz museum said. Accompanied by his wife, Barak visited part of the museum devoted to the Holocaust as well as buildings housing the former Auschwitz camp's infamous crematoria and gas chambers, said a statement from the museum in Oswiecim, southern Poland. Leading a small delegation, the Israeli official then visited the Birkenau camp, located some... Read Full Story

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak was quoted on Thursday as saying he does not view Iran as a threat to the existence of the Jewish state, a view that would seem to depart from Israeli statements of the recent past. Israel's mass-circulation Yedioth Ahronoth daily quoted Barak, the head of Israel's center-left Labour party, as saying "Iran does not constitute an existential threat against Israel." In response to a question about Tehran's nuclear programme which Israel... Read Full Story

Israel's defense minister told visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday that his country is taking "no option" off the table regarding Iran's nuclear program, indicating that a military strike remains a possibility even as the U.S. tries to persuade Israel to give diplomacy more time. "This is our position. We mean it," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said, standing alongside Gates. At the same time, Barak said that the current priority should be diplomacy. Gates's visit to Israel... Read Full Story

Tikun Olam-תקון עולם: Make the World a Better Place Essays on politics, culture and ideas about Israeli-Arab peace and world music Muslim and Jewish Women in Nazareth 'We can live in peace'...John Lennon (photo: Dafna Tal) Mahzor New York Public Library Sarajevo Haggadah Mah Nishtanah Antaea Darom Israeli women's art Torah as music Ben Heine ceramic bowl Mohammad Said Kalash, "Offering Reconciliation" exhibit... Read Full Story

Tikun Olam-תקון עולם: Make the World a Better Place Essays on politics, culture and ideas about Israeli-Arab peace and world music Muslim and Jewish Women in Nazareth 'We can live in peace'...John Lennon (photo: Dafna Tal) Mahzor New York Public Library Sarajevo Haggadah Mah Nishtanah Antaea Darom Israeli women's art Torah as music Ben Heine ceramic bowl Mohammad Said Kalash, "Offering Reconciliation" exhibit... Read Full Story