Defense Minister Ehud Barak is furious over Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s decision to suspend senior Defense Ministry employee Amos Gilad. Olmert announced Gilad will no longer serve as the cabinet’s agent in Egyptian mediated talks with Hamas.

Barak stated that Gilad is not even under Olmert’s authority, but that of the Defense Ministry, and the decision to dismiss him from his senior post compromises state security.

Barak’s condemned the prime minister’s “bully behavior” and rejected his “abuse of authority” to even the score with the senior civil servant. Defense Ministry officials add that despite statements to the contrary from Olmert, the dismissal of Amos Gilad will indeed have a negative impact on efforts to obtain the release of Gilad Shalit.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)