A few days ago, Shin Bet head Nadav Argaman took the trouble to pay a visit to Ehud Barak, a former prime minister and defense minister, in Barak's designer apartment in a luxury Tel Aviv high-rise. Argaman's mission was to update Barak regarding serious security warnings that terror agents, under Iranian guidance (or at least inspiration), will try to harm him during one of his foreign travels.
This unusual tete-a-tete was revealed by the Israel Television News Company on July 3 and reawakened the sensitive issue regarding the protection of Israeli public personages when abroad and in general. According to Israel's current policy, former prime ministers and security ministers are entitled to close-quarters protection (personal bodyguards) for the first five years after leaving their governmental posts, and for protection abroad during the first seven years.
There are two former prime ministers living in Israel today. Although Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert no longer qualify for this security protection, both men take trips around the world by themselves without any type of safeguards. The two men were privy to the most sensitive secrets of Israel's security system and a successful strike on one of them constitutes one of the greatest nightmares for Israel's security services. The only thing worse than that would be a kidnapping. Barak had also served as chief of staff and Olmert headed the state in the difficult years when the Iranian front heated up. Nevertheless, these two men travel around the globe on their own.
Barak arms himself with a pistol when abroad. Even today, at the age of 75, he is still a sharp shooter. Beware anyone who tries to take him on; Barak served as the larger-than-life commander of the Israeli army's elite General Headquarters reconnaissance platoon. By contrast, Olmert excels in the gift of gab and, unlike Barak, he likes to take trips to Asia, mainly Muslim countries such as Kazakhstan and its neighbors — without a bodyguard. Olmert also often stops in Istanbul for connecting flights; this is a huge airport in the heart of an Islamic state that is a popular refuge for countless Islamic State activists and jihadis. Only recently, Olmert "hopped over" to Sochi, where he watched one of the World Cup games. He usually takes these trips alone, though sometimes a personal assistant accompanies the former prime minister.
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