Ehud and Me
Today on Tablet
January 21, 2011
Liel Leibovitz pens an open letter today in Tablet Magazine to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who this week departed the historic Labor Party. After dispensing with the pleasantries—”Momentous as your political failure is, it is not much of a factor in the profound and bubbling contempt I feel for you, a visceral enmity that few of your colleagues have inspired in my otherwise tranquil political imagination”—Liel gets down to brass tacks: Look to Moses, in this week’s parasha, who willingly gave up power when it was clear that his leadership was faltering. Or not: “They might soon be in the streets in Tel Aviv, too,” Liel warns, conjuring the image of the popular Tunisian revolution, “tired of the corruption and opportunism and perfidiousness of their rotting political class. When that happens, don’t bother turning to this week’s parasha for inspiration. It would be too late.
Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.
