touched as well by the fact that he had decided to “pass the torch” to me, someone

/ BARAK / 10 touched as well by the fact that he had decided to “pass the torch” to me, someone more in the mold, and closer to, Rabin. But I remained cautious, too. When I got back home, Nava, knowing where I’d been, was still awake. I told her everything that Shimon had said. I told her how extraordinary it felt to have the prospect, at least, of leading Labor in opposition to Bibi, without the need to confront, or to inflict personal hurt, on Shimon. But I added: “It seems a bit too good to be true.” It was. The next morning, I joined other ministers and party officials with Peres in his office. It was as if our conversation a few hours before had never happened. Shimon set out his strategy for Labor going forward. And the first thing he said was that the party needed to push back any leadership election beyond the mandated 14 months.“It’s too early,” he said. He said we needed to focus on two other strategic imperatives: to reconstruct the party, and consider the issue of joining a possible “unity” government with Bibi. Though Bibi went on to form his government without us, in alliance with a number of smaller Orthodox parties, the idea of a Labor leadership change seemed off the agenda, at least for now. In early August, I was standing next to Giora Einy — the “political operative” Yitzhak had sent to help bring me into his government, and a friend of Peres as well — when Shimon rose to speak to the dozens of well- wishers at his 73"-birthday celebration in Tel Aviv. He was at his old, self- confident best. With just a few thousand extra votes, we would have won the election, he said. He was sure Bibi’s coalition — “a coalition against peace” — would not survive for long. Giora, smiling, turned to me and said: “It doesn’t sound like a farewell speech. It seems like he’s ready for the next round. He lost twice to Begin. He lost once to Shamir. And only once to Bibi. He’s not going to stop without giving it another go.” Another of Peres’s old friends, a few weeks later, urged me to press him on the need to step aside. I’d become closer to the French Jewish businessman Jean Frydman during the election campaign. Since he had helped organize the fateful peace rally at which Rabin was shot, he felt — wrongly, but powerfully — a sense of responsibility for what had happened. He wanted to do everything possible to ensure that Rabin’s political legacy, and Shimon’s, survived. He invited Nava and me to visit him for a few days. When he asked about the birthday celebration, I told him what Peres had said. “He’s making a huge mistake,” Jean told me. “After every election, he goes through the same process. Always, he’s convinced that next time he will win.” I said how I dreaded the prospect of being part of an effort to 296 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_011767