{"id":276414,"date":"2026-02-06T01:38:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T01:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/276414\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T01:38:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T01:38:22","slug":"barak-wanted-russian-immigration-to-offset-arab-population-growth-epstein-files-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/276414\/","title":{"rendered":"Barak wanted Russian immigration to offset Arab population growth, Epstein files show"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former prime minister Ehud Barak fretted about Israeli Arab population growth and said he had told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russian immigration could offset that growth, according to a recording released in the so-called Epstein files this week.<\/p>\n

The files, released by the US Department of Justice<\/a>, are documents investigators compiled about Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender with a sprawling, global network of powerful acquaintances.<\/p>\n

Barak\u2019s ties to Epstein have been known for years. There is no evidence of wrongdoing by Barak.<\/p>\n

One of the millions of files released by the Department of Justice is an audio recording of a meeting attended by Barak and Epstein.<\/p>\n

The circumstances of the conversation were unclear, but background noise seemed to indicate it took place during a meal. It was not clear who made the recording or why. Some of the audio is unclear.<\/p>\n

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In the recording, Barak said he was 71 years old, putting the meeting around 2013 or 2014. Barak was the prime minister in 1999-2001, and defense minister in 2007-2013, but the audio seemed to indicate he was entering the private sector at the time of the conversation.<\/p>\n

Barak was asked about demographics in Israel, and expressed concern about Arab population growth in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Haredim are more productive than the Arabs,\u201d he said, referring to the ultra-Orthodox community\u2019s high population growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe future in Israel is waking up in the right moment, before it\u2019s too late,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be an Arab majority,\u201d he said, referring to population growth in the West Bank and Gaza and the failure to reach a two-state solution with the Palestinians. \u201cIt\u2019s a collective blindness of our society.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tDocuments that were included in the US Justice Department release of the Jeffrey Epstein files are photographed on January 2, 2026. (AP Photo\/Jon Elswick, File)<\/p>\n

Barak also expressed concern about Israel\u2019s growing proportion of Arab Israelis.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven within the borders of smaller Israel, there is still an issue. I think the Arabs are growing slowly. Forty years ago, they were 16 percent, now they\u2019re 20,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tFormer prime minister Ehud Barak at an anti-government rally in Tel Aviv on May 17, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

He proposed having other minority groups, immigrants and converts make up for the difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, with the Druze \u2014 they\u2019re about one percent. They are totally Israeli in their behavior,\u201d he said. \u201cThen we should take the Christian minority. They\u2019re about another two percent. They have an education system that is better than ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to break the monopoly of the Orthodox rabbinate, on marriage and funerals, the definition of a Jew,\u201d he said. \u201cOpen the gates for massive conversion into Judaism. It\u2019s a successful country. Many will apply.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was apparently referring to Russian immigrants with mixed ancestry, saying it takes the \u201csecond generation to adapt,\u201d and mentioning Israelis with mixed Russian-Israeli names. During a wave of immigration from the former Soviet Union in the 1980s and early 1990s, more than a million people moved to Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would interview someone entering to some unit in the army, asking, \u2018What\u2019s your name?\u2019 He answers, \u2018Sergey Bitton,\u2019 or \u2018Vladimir Butbul,’\u201d Barak said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can control the quality much more effectively, much more than the founding fathers of Israel did,\u201d he said. \u201cThey took whatever came. They had to save people. Now, we can be more selective.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, with [a] much more open mind about turning Jews, we can easily absorb another million. I have to tell Putin always, what we need is not just one more million. We need, dramatically, the million Russians,\u201d he said. \u201cI see that many prefer to be Belarusian, or maybe young, handsome girls will come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barak made the comments in passing during a conversation that lasted more than three hours.<\/p>\n

Barak also discussed failed efforts at reaching a lasting peace agreement with the Palestinians, and how Israel could lessen tensions with the Palestinians to help forge ties with moderate Arab states.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you focus only on the Palestinian-Israeli issue, Israelis feel freier, you say in Yiddish, kind of \u201csuckers,\u201d if you go to peace,\u201d mentioning how Israel\u2019s withdrawals from Gaza and Lebanon had led to more violence, such as rocket attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Bibi [Netanyahu] will pull out from the West Bank, when you come to land, to Ben Gurion [airport], you go [at] 2,000 feet over Arab occupied territory. It could be crazy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople feel that we are only giving. We cannot get anything, and it\u2019s true. From the Palestinians, you cannot get anything,\u201d he said. \u201cBut once you put into the equation the whole Arab moderate world, you get a lot. Recognition from the Arab world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never tried, in the last four years, to make, never ready to make painful decisions in order to have a breakthrough. We played around. Abu Mazen is a responsible party for what happens,\u201d he said, using the nom de guerre of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Americans made mistakes, Europeans made mistakes, but that cannot justify our failure, and it\u2019s true, Abu Mazen doesn\u2019t help. He\u2019s not an easy client,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Other world leaders are featured in the Epstein files, including former US president Bill Clinton, US President Donald Trump, and the UK\u2019s former Prince Andrew.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former prime minister Ehud Barak fretted about Israeli Arab population growth and said he had told Russian President…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-276414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}