"'Despicable' Epstein Article May Be Netanyahu's Doing, Barak Hints at Campaign Event"

Ehud Barak slammed a British tabloid report that insinuated that he may have met with young women at the New York mansion of convincted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Wednesday during a statement he made in Tel Aviv.

He denied the veracity of the report, hinting it may be Prime Minister Netanyahu's doing, and also attacked the way he has been portrayed in the press.

"A despicable act has been committed in Israel, a false and baseless blood libel," Barak, who is currently running for Knesset as the head of his newly-established Democratic Israel party, said.

He also took the opportunity to lash out at Netanyahu, who jumped on the opportunity to besmirch Barak after Epstein was arrested earlier this month because of their known ties with each other.

"We have been living for the past 25 years in Israel in an atmosphere of fear in which anyone who tries to replace Netanyahu becomes a traitor and even worse," Barak asserted in reference to the prime minister. "From David Levy, who's only sin was to stand for the Likud leadership and whose betrayal of Netanyahu turned him into a senior Likud official surrounded by enemies, through Yitzhak Rabin, who was prime minister until he was felled by three bullets in the back, which were the product of lies and incitement. It was the same with Meir Dagan in his day and recently Benny Gantz, a target of a despicable campaign of lies, who only wanted to lead Israel back to normality."...

Barak is "involved in a fiercely contested election campaign in Israel, and where the allegations could not be more serious and damaging."