Editing Ehud Barak (section)

====Leaving the Labor Party====
In January 2011, Labor Party leader Barak formed a breakaway party, [[Independence (Israeli political party)|Independence]], which enabled him to maintain his loyal Labor's MK faction within Netanyahu's government, and prevented the departure of Labor party as a whole from Netanyahu's coalition-government. Labor previously threatened to force Barak to do so. After Barak's move, Netanyahu was able to maintain a majority of 66 MK (out of 120 in the [[Knesset]]), previously having 74 MKs within his majority coalition.

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."<ref name="jpost.com">{{cite web|newspaper=The Jerusalem Post |title=Barak at UN: Strong Israel is revenge of the Nazis' victims |url=http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=207716 |author=Jordana Horn |date=10 February 2011 |access-date=10 February 2011 |archive-date=23 October 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023011146/http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=207716}}</ref>

Barak's Independence party was due to run in a [[2013 Israeli legislative election|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.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23525/Default.aspx?archive=article_title |author=Ryan Jones |title=Ehud Barak drops out of Israeli politics |newspaper=[[Israel HaYom|Israel Today]] |date=26 November 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131022133959/http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23525/Default.aspx?archive=article_title |archive-date=22 October 2013}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite news|title=Barak criticized over Iran comments |newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/premium/loginpage?destination=http://www.irishtimes.com/news/barak-criticised-over-iran-comments-1.13168}}</ref>

In 2023 it was revealed that Barak had visited [[Jeffrey Epstein]] around 30 times from 2013 to 2017 and had also flown on his jet, having first met Epstein in 2003. Barak denied any wrongdoing.<ref>{{cite news |last=ToI Staff |last2=JTA |author-link2=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |date=4 May 2023 |title=Ehud Barak met with Jeffrey Epstein dozens of times, flew on private plane — report |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/ehud-barak-met-with-jeffrey-epstein-dozens-of-times-flew-on-private-plane-report/ |work=[[The Times of Israel]] |issue= |postscript=. JTA article: Lapin, Andrew. Noam Chomsky, Ehud Barak, Leon Botstein and a Rothschild are among the names on Jeffrey Epstein’s newly uncovered calendar. May 1, 2023. www.jta.org/2023/05/01/united-states/noam-chomsky-ehud-barak-leon-botstein-and-a-rothschild-are-among-the-names-on-jeffrey-epsteins-newly-uncovered-calendar}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Noam Chomsky, Ehud Barak and Woody Allen all met with Epstein after conviction |url=https://www.thejc.com/news/world/noam-chomsky-ehud-barak-and-woody-allen-all-met-with-epstein-after-conviction-vocm1y6d |work=[[The Jewish Chronicle]] |date=2 May 2023}}</ref>