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Stanley was worried by polling data that suggested most Israelis saw Bibi as “strong.” I argued that strength was one area where we wouldn’t have to worry. “No way, in a campaign, he’ Il end up coming over looking stronger than me.” Stanley seemed not entirely convinced.
Both in “strength” and other ways, I think my background did prove an advantage. The 35 years I’d spent in the military had given me a singleminded determination to set goals, follow through and achieve them. After Haim Ramon came to my office before the no-confidence vote to ask whether I was sure I wanted to go ahead, and I answered with an unhesitating “yes,” Haim had told a couple of reporters: “Barak has balls of steel.” In truth, I was puzzled he’d even asked me. As when I was in uniform, it would never have occurred to me to ask him to try to line up the necessary votes if I hadn’t thought it through and intended to go ahead with it.
Still, my military background was not always an asset as I found my feet as party leader and prepared to take on Bibi in the election campaign. In searching for the tools, the structure, and the people I felt would give us the best chance to win, I sometimes failed to pay due attention to the party’s existing apparatus and institutions. This alienated a number of established Labor politicians, eventually including Haim himself. So as the campaign approached I tried to shore up my ties with the party establishment. I drafted in Bougie Herzog to act as my regular liaison with leading figures in the party. I was careful to include a number of Labor politicians in our campaign team as well, though, as Philip Gould had recommended, I made sure they didn’t actually run it.
The closest equivalent to the role Haim had played in Peres’s campaign went to a young businessman, PR professional and Labor supporter named Moshe Gaon. As spokeswoman, we brought in someone who, though she’d been a messenger of doom during the Tze’elim controversy that engulfed me before joining Rabin’s government, had undeniable experience and ability which I valued and respected: Yitzhak’s former media aide Aliza Goren. As campaign coordinator, I chose Tal Silberstein, who at the time was in charge of a citizens’ group called Dor Shalem Doresh Shalom: “A Whole Generation Demands Peace.” I relied on frequent, less formal input from political friends whose judgement I had learned to trust, like Eitan Haber and Giora Eini. Also playing a key role was a group of four young women, led by Orna Angel, a successful architect and a former soldier in Sayeret Matkal. She built from scratch an army of nearly 20,000 volunteers who helped
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