I anyone thought Ehud Barak was trying to cozy up to the Haredi parties by talking about canceling the entire draft law, he's got another think coming. I thought it was strange at first, considering Barak as Prime Minister way back when in the year 2000 ran a program he called the civil revolution in which he tried to roll back the religious influence on daily life of general Israelis.

Back then it was pretty bad and intense. The religious and Haredi parties saw it as a direct attack on them. The friction was intense, and when Barak authorized the transport of a massive transformer by the electric Company on Shabbos that brought about his downfall as religious parties backed out of supporting him.

People thought this time along might be different, as he remembers what brought about his downfall last time and as he sees the difficulty presented to Gantz considering the strong connection between the Haredi parties and Netanyahu/Likud. Then Barak spoke about his plans for canceling the draft law and people were sure he is softening the Haredim up for a potential coalition.

Sure enough, that might be over. It looks like Barak's civil revolution might be back. Today Ehud Barak announced that he is committed to a number of things that he will insist be included in any government he joins. Along with cancellation of the draft law, Barak commits to establishing a final border for Israel within two years thus guaranteeing security and a Jewish majority in Israel for generations to come, free education form age 0, no lines in emergency rooms, decrease cost of living by 20% and no religious coercion - no "hadata" in the education system, yes to civil marriage within a year, and yes to public transportation on Shabbos. This is along the lines of Barak's 1999 commitment to take Israel out of Lebanon, which he kept, and his later post-election commitment to his civil revolution.




Ehud Barak is not going to be romancing the Haredi parties with these promises...