In the aftermath of the Gaza assault, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has announced he is planning to retire from political life in the coming months. Barak served as Israeli prime minister from 1999 to 2001, radically expanding settlement construction in the Occupied Territories while engaging in peace talks that ultimately collapsed at Camp David. He returned to government as Israel’s defense minister in 2007, presiding over the Operation Cast Lead attack on Gaza that killed more than 1,300 Palestinians at the end of 2008, nearly four years before the most recent Israeli assault.