Former prime minister Ehud Barak has said he “regrets the moment he met” the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in his first interview since a recording of him discussing the idea of bringing “young handsome girls” to Israel was leaked.
Speaking to Channel 12, Barak sought to distance himself from the paedophile financier and admitted that he wished he had used “more thorough judgment” before associating with him.
Epstein and Barak maintained a close relationship for many years, with the ex-premier notably pictured staying at Epstein’s New York home in 2016.
"I can certainly say that I regret the moment I met him in 2003,” said Barak.
"And there is definitely room to ask if I should have exercised more thorough judgment.”
However, he insisted that he “never saw any unreasonable occurrence, or any unreasonable behaviour,” adding: “I did not know that manner of his crimes until 2019, and you probably didn’t know it either.”
This was despite Epstein pleading guilty in 2008 to a state charge of attempting to procure girls under the age of 18 for prostitution in Florida.
Epstein had been arrested and charged by Florida Police in 2006 in relation to allegations that he had engaged in sexual activity with girls as young as 14 and, the following year, was indicted as part of an FBI investigation into the claims.
The latter case closed when he agreed a plea deal, which granted him immunity from federal charges in return for an 18-month prison sentence and restitution paid to the victims.
Barak nonetheless continued his friendship with Epstein, with both he and his wife pictured meeting the financier on multiple occasions between 2015 and 2019 – when the full scale of Epstein’s crimes was revealed publicly, after which he was imprisoned and, subsequently, took his own life – though there is no suggestion either engaged in wrongdoing.
The interview came after a leaked recording, believed to have been made around 2014, showed that Barak had expressed interest in relaxing conversion requirements to allow “a million Russians” and “young, handsome girls” to the country.
"I believe we have to break the monopoly of the Orthodox rabbinate on marriage and funerals and whatever, and on the definition of a Jew,” he said.
"We can control the quality much more effectively than our ancestors, than the founding fathers of Israel could… they took whatever came, now we can be selective."
Apparently referring to the wave of immigration from the Soviet Union in the 1980s and ‘90s, he added: “I used to tell Putin, what we need is just one more million, it changed Israel in a dramatic, dramatic manner the million Russians.
"I think many would prefer [it] to being Belarussian and many young, handsome girls would come.”
He made the comments after expressing concerns about the growth of the Arab-Israeli population, suggesting that Israel could become an “Arab-majority” country.
Discussing the recording in his recent interview, Barak said he had employed an “unsuccessful choice of words, with associations to unreasonable stereotypes”, but denied that his remakrs were racist.
"I’m not proud of that choice of words, but I did not say that to Putin,” he added.
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