And then, there is the other Ehud. Ehud Barak was Prime Minister of Israel at the start of the second intifada in 2000 — a terror war launched by Yasser Arafat, the likes of which Israel had never seen before, including dozens of suicide bombings. Things did not die down until Israelis dumped Barak in a general election and put Ariel Sharon into power.

Today Barak is the head of the Labor Party, the number two party in the governing coalition and the only thing propping up Ehud Olmert’s Kadima-based government. In today’s Ha’aretz, political commentator Uzi Benziman writes about Barak’s ultimatum issued to Olmert that he must resign or face elections — an ultimatum that left out a dealine. He writes:

During his term as prime minister, in 2000, Ehud Barak sounded like someone who was intent on reaching an agreement with Yasser Arafat, but recanted at the last minute. During that same period, Barak looked as if he were on the brink of signing an historic peace treaty with Hafez Assad, but at close to zero hour, he found another reason to refrain from doing so. After the publication of the Winograd Committee’s interim report, which clearly enunciated Ehud Olmert’s responsibility for the failures of the Second Lebanon War, Barak explicitly stated his intention to quit the government immediately after the committee released its final report, but he decided to claim “changed circumstances” so as to avoid keeping his word. Since being tapped as defense minister, Barak has escalated his rhetoric against the Hamas leadership and repeatedly threatened a large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip, yet he has not followed through on his threats.

For this reason, Benziman dubs him “Mr. Almost,” referring to an old song about a man who never quite gets together with his beloved. It’s worth a read, as we all sit and wait for the inevitable fall of the Olmert government.