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Ehud Barak ( ; born Ehud Brog; 12 February 1942) is an Israeli former general and politician who served as the prime minister and Minister of Defense from 1999 to 2001. He was leader of the Labor Party between 1997 and 2001 and between 2007 and 2011. He was also Minister of Defense from 2007 to 2013.
Born on a kibbutz, Barak is the eldest of four sons; his maternal grandparents were murdered in the Holocaust. He graduated in physics and mathematics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and later obtained a master's in engineering-economic systems from Stanford University.
Barak's military career in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began in 1959, spanning 35 years and culminating in his appointment as Chief of the General Staff in 1991, serving until 1995. His military tenure is noted for his leadership in several operations, including "Operation Isotope" in 1972, the covert 1973 Israeli raid in Lebanon, and the 1976 Entebbe raid. A Rav Aluf, Barak shares with two others the honor of being the most highly decorated soldier in Israel's history.
In politics, his career began with his appointment as interior minister in 1995 under Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Following Rabin's assassination, he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in Shimon Peres' government. Barak was elected to the Knesset on the Labor Party list in 1996 and subsequently was elected Labor Party leader in 1997. Barak served as Israel's most recent left-wing Prime Minister from 1999 to 2001. His tenure was marked by significant events, including the decision to form a coalition with the Orthodox party Shas, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Southern Lebanon in 2000, and participation in the 2000 Camp David Summit aimed at resolving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Barak's government faced challenges, notably the protests in October 2000.
After defeat in the 2001 Israeli prime ministerial election, he left politics and engaged in international business and advisory roles. He made a political comeback in 2005, attempting to regain leadership in the Labor Party, and later served as defense minister − where he led Operation Cast Lead in 2008–09 − and deputy prime minister under Ehud Olmert and then in Benjamin Netanyahu's second government between 2007 and 2013. His decision to form the Independence party in 2011 marked a shift in his politics, influencing the dynamics within the Netanyahu government. Despite retiring from politics in 2012, he attempted another comeback, running in the September 2019 Israeli legislative election as the leader of Israel Democratic Party − a new party he formed. His party merged with others to form an alliance called the Democratic Union, but it did not win enough seats for him to become a member of the Knesset. Outside of his political and military career, Barak has accumulated wealth through business endeavors and investments; his net worth is estimated to be $10–15 million.
His paternal grandparents, Frieda and Reuven Brog, were murdered in Pušalotas (Pushelat) in northern Lithuania (then ruled by the Russian Empire) in 1912, leaving his father orphaned at the age of two. Barak's maternal grandparents, Elka and Shmuel Godin, died at the Treblinka extermination camp during the Holocaust. At special ceremony, UN pays tribute to victims of Holocaust UN News 10 February 2011
Ehud hebraized his family name from "Brog" to "Barak" in 1972. It was during his military service that he met his future wife, Nava (née Cohen, born 8 April 1947 in Tiberias). They had three daughters together: Michal (born 9 August 1970), Yael (born 23 October 1974) and Anat (born 16 October 1981). He has grandchildren. Barak divorced Nava in August 2003. On 30 July 2007, Barak married Nili Priel (born 25 April 1944) in a small ceremony in his private residence. In his spare time, Barak enjoys reading works by writers such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and he is a classical pianist, with many years of study behind him. His second cousin, Ronald Barak, is an American Olympic gymnast.
Barak earned his bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1968, and his master's degree in engineering-economic systems in 1978 from Stanford University, California.
During the Yom Kippur War, Barak commanded an improvised regiment of tanks which, among other things, helped rescue paratrooper battalion 890, commanded by Yitzhak Mordechai, which was suffering heavy losses in the Battle of the Chinese Farm. He went on to command the 401st armored brigade and the 611st "Pillar of Fire" and Sinai Division divisions, before his appointment to head the IDF's Planning Directorate. Barak also participated in the Siege of Beirut, overseeing it from Beirut International Airport. Barak later served as head of Aman, the Military Intelligence Directorate (1983–85), head of Central Command (1986–87) and Deputy Chief of the General Staff (1987–91). He served as Chief of the General Staff between 1 April 1991 and 1 January 1995. During this period he implemented the first Oslo Accords and participated in the negotiations towards the Israel–Jordan peace treaty.
Barak was awarded the Medal of Distinguished Service and four Chief of Staff citations ( Tzalash HaRamatkal) for courage and operational excellence.Gal Perl Finkel, Don’t throw out the baby with the bath water, The Jerusalem Post, 9 August 2018. These five decorations make him the most decorated soldier in Israeli history (jointly with close friend Nechemya Cohen).Offer Drori, htMajor, 4 February 2009 (Hebrew) In 1992 he was awarded the Legion of Merit (Commander) by the United States. An image of Barak receiving the award on 14 January 1993 in the Pentagon. Note that according to IDF regulations foreign medals are not worn on the uniform. In 2012, he was again awarded by the United States with the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service.
In 1999 Barak gave a campaign promise to end Israel's 22-year-long occupation of Southern Lebanon within a year. On 24 May 2000 Israel withdrew from Southern Lebanon. On 7 October, three Israeli soldiers were killed in a border raid by Hezbollah and their bodies were subsequently captured. The bodies of these soldiers, along with the living Elhanan Tenenbaum, were eventually exchanged for Lebanese captives in 2004.
The Barak government resumed peace negotiations with the PLO, stating that "Every attempt by to keep hold of this area the as one political entity leads, necessarily, to either a nondemocratic or a non-Jewish state. Because if the Palestinians vote, then it is a binational state, and if they don't vote it is an apartheid state." As part of these negotiations, Barak took part in the Camp David 2000 Summit which was meant finally to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict but failed. Barak also allowed Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami to attend the Taba Summit with the leadership of the Palestinian Authority, after his government had fallen.
In 2005, Barak announced his return to Israeli politics, and ran for leadership of the Labor Party in November. However, in light of his weak poll showings, Barak dropped out of the race early and declared his support for veteran statesman Shimon Peres. Following his failed attempt to maintain leadership of the Labor party, Barak became a partner of the Pennsylvania-based investment company SCP Private Equity Partners. He also established a company "Ehud Barak Limited" which is thought to have made over NIS 30 million.
After Peres lost the race to Amir Peretz and left the Labor party, Barak announced he would stay at the party, despite his shaky relationship with its newly elected leader. He declared, however, that he would not run for a spot on the Labor party's Knesset list for the March 2006 elections. Barak's attempt to return to a prominent role in Israel politics seemed to have failed. However, Peretz's hold on the Labor leadership proved unexpectedly shaky as he was badly damaged by negative views of his performance as Defense Minister during the 2006 Lebanon War, which was seen as something less than a success in Israel.
As a result, Barak faced a runoff against the second-place finisher, Ami Ayalon, on 12 June 2007, which he won by a narrow margin.
Barak has been critical of what he sees as racist sentiments that have recently been expressed by some Israeli and ; he views such statements as a threat to Israeli unity and that they may lead Israeli society into a "dark and dangerous place".
From December 2008 to January 2009, Barak led the Israel Defense Forces through Operation Cast Lead in his capacity as Minister of Defence.
Labor won only 13 out of the 120 Knesset seats in the 2009 elections, making them the fourth largest party. Barak and other Labor officials initially stated they would not take part in the next government. However, over the objections of some in the Labor party, in March 2009, Barak reached an agreement under which Labor joined the governing coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu. Barak retained his position as Defense Minister.
In February 2011, Barak attended a ceremony at the UN for the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. Barak told the UN General Assembly that "an independent, strong, thriving and peaceful State of Israel is the vengeance of the dead."
Barak's Independence party was due to run in a legislative election, but decided not to in 2012, and retired from politics. Barak planned to quit since Operation Pillar of Defense but postponed it until later that year.
Barak stated during an American television interview that he would "probably" strive for nuclear weapons if he were in Iran's position, adding "I don't delude myself that they are doing it just because of Israel". This comment has been criticized and compared to Barak's comment in 1998 during a television interview when he said that if he were a Palestinian he would probably have joined one of the terror organizations.
In 2015, Barak invested in Reporty, a tech startup that developed video streaming and geolocation software and later changed its name to Carbyne. A large portion of the funds invested by Barak was supplied by Jeffrey Epstein. For Epstein's 63rd birthday in 2016 a number of letters written for the occasion by high profile individuals were compiled as a birthday gift; among these were a letter from Barak and his wife. In 2023, it was revealed that Barak had visited Epstein around 30 times from 2013 to 2017 and had also flown on his jet. Barak denied any wrongdoing. Barak stated that on the two occasions he flew with Epstein on private planes, Barak's wife and security guards were with him. Leaked emails (released by the hacker group Handala, which "likely operates out of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence", according to Reuters) show that in one occasion when Barak visited Epstein's private island Little Saint James (in January 2014), Barak was "arranging that the security guys will not come with us to the island," but his wife Nili Priel did accompany him.
Other emails released by Handala show that Epstein leveraged his relationship with Barak to approach powerful figures like Peter Thiel, a former director of Israeli signals intelligence, and two people in Vladimir Putin's circle (former Russian Deputy Minister of Economic Development Sergey Belyakov and Viktor Vekselberg). Epstein arranged for Barak to meet Thiel (they had met once, in Davos), presumably to discuss geopolitics, in New York on 9 June 2014. In 2016, Epstein pitched Reporty to Thiel-founded Valar Ventures (in 2015 and 2016, Epstein invested US$40 million into funds managed by Valar ), but the proposal got rejected on account of being premature. Valar's McCormack said they would try to reengage when the startup was more developed though. In 2018, the Founders Fund, another firm co-founded by Thiel, joined the $15 million Series B.
While scheduling the meeting with Thiel, Barak also tried to arrange to meet Putin's ally Viktor Vekselberg early in June 2014. An email sent in April 2015 shows that Barak asked Epstein for his opinion on Vekselberg-backed Fifth Dimension, a startup which later shut down after being sanctioned in 2018 by the US for alleged election meddling. This startup's leadership also included Benny Gantz (former Israel Defense Forces' chief-of-staff) and Ram Ben-Barak (former deputy Mossad director).
According to The San Francisco Standard,leaked emails show that, around the same time Barak and Epstein contacted Thiel, other Israeli officials tried to build a relationship with Thiel as well, "jockeying for Thiel's attention", often aiming at a "lucrative" job at Palantir. Among such officials were the diplomat Ron Prosor and intelligence officer Zivan Benisty, although their effort was separate from that of Barak.
Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre said that she had been sexually assaulted by Barak after being trafficked to him by Epstein, information which came to light in a 2020 court filing by Alan Dershowitz. Barak and Dershowitz denied the validity of Giuffre's statement.
In the interview, Barak was asked whether he is a lobbyist who earns a living from "opening doors". The interviewer stated "You have arrived recently at the Kazakhstan despot Nazarbayev and the president of Ghana. You are received immediately." Barak confirmed that he has been received by these heads of state but denied earning money from opening doors for international business deals for Israeli and foreign corporations, and said he does not see any ethical or moral problems in his business activities. He further said there is no logic to demand of him, after "the natural process in democracy has ended" to not utilize the tools he accumulated in his career to secure his financial future. When asked if his financial worth is $10–15 million, Barak said "I'm not far from there." Ehud Barak warns that Israel under Netanyahu is on the road to disaster (8 January 2015), Haaretz
| Chief of Staff Citation | ||
| Chief of Staff Citation | Chief of Staff Citation | Chief of Staff Citation |
| Six-Day War Ribbon | War of Attrition Ribbon | Yom Kippur War Ribbon |
| First Lebanon War Ribbon | Medal of Distinguished Service | Commander of the Legion of Merit |
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