Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has said he regrets maintaining a relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who was convicted in 2008 of pimping children for prostitution, amid growing backlash over the exposure of millions of documents.

In an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 on Thursday, Barak commented for the first time on his relationship with Epstein, who committed suicide in prison in 2019. released a large number of Documents related to deceased financier.

Barak, who led Israel from 1999 to 2001, expressed remorse for his long relationship with Epstein and said he regretted the moment he met the financier. In 2003, he was introduced to Epstein at a major event in Washington by former Israeli President Shimon Peres, who called Epstein a “good Jew.”

“I take responsibility for all my actions and decisions. There are questions as to whether I should have conducted a more thorough investigation. I regret not doing so,” Barak said.

But even though Epstein was convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008 and spent about a year in prison during their relationship, Barrack claimed he was unaware of the scope of Epstein’s crimes until a wider investigation into him was launched in 2019.

According to Israeli media reports, he said: “I didn’t know the method of his crimes until 2019, and you probably didn’t either.” He claimed that in the 15 years he knew Epstein, he “never saw any unreasonable incident, or any unreasonable behavior.”

Visiting hometowns and islands

Barrack has not denied his contact with Epstein after his 2008 conviction, which included multiple stays with his wife at the financier’s Manhattan home between 2015 and 2019, as well as exchanging emails and meeting with him in person.

He also admitted to visiting Epstein’s notorious Little St. James island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where parties involving sex trafficking victims were said to have been held.

He said it was a single visit that took place for three hours in broad daylight, accompanied by his wife and three guards, and that he saw nothing there except Epstein and some workers.

Barrack sought to deflect his ongoing business and social ties to Epstein after his conviction in 2008, saying that during that period the financier was widely viewed as someone who had “paid his debt to society” and reentered public life.

He said it was not until a reopened investigation into him in 2019 revealed the scale and severity of his conduct that his influential associates severed ties with him.

That year, Epstein committed suicide in prison while facing charges of sex trafficking underage girls.

The connection between shame Epstein and Israel The issues have been thrust into the spotlight after millions of documents were released.

The documents reveal more details about Epstein’s interactions with global elites, including Barak. But they also document his funding of Israeli groups, including Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (Israeli military) and the settler group Jewish National Fund, as well as his ties to members of Mossad, Israel’s overseas intelligence agency.

During the interview, Barak was also asked about comments he made about Israel in a recent unclassified recording with Epstein Offset Palestinian population growth Absorb one million Russian-speaking immigrants.

In the audio, the former Israeli leader also appears to disparage Sephardic Jews from the Middle East and North Africa.

He said that in the past, Israel had done everything it could to remove Jews from “North Africa, Arabs or elsewhere,” but added that the country could now “control the quality of the population more effectively than our ancestors could.”

“We can easily absorb another million. I’ve always told (Russian President Vladimir) Putin in the past that all we need is one more million,” he said in audio released last month by the U.S. Justice Department.

Such a wave of immigration would mean “many young, beautiful girls coming to Israel from Russia, tall and slender,” he said in the recording.

In his comments, Barak said he was “not proud of the wording, but I didn’t say that to Putin.”

He denied his comments were racist and said they were about the demographic challenges Israel faces due to its growing Arab population.

Norwegian diplomats face many questions

Barak claimed that while more documents detailing his relationship with Epstein may emerge from the released documents, none will reveal wrongdoing.

The release of the documents, compiled by investigators probing Epstein’s activities, further reveals his connections to a vast network of powerful contacts around the world.

Those involved include Thayer Rod LarsonNorwegian diplomat, principal designer in 1993 Oslo AccordsHe faces a storm of corruption and extortion charges after documents revealed he was deeply integrated into Epstein’s inner circle.

A Norwegian media investigation has uncovered links in Epstein’s will involving illegal loans, visa fraud for sex-trafficked women and millions of dollars in benefit provisions for his children, raising questions about whether the underlying agreement on a two-state solution in Oslo was brokered by mediators vulnerable to elite blackmail and foreign intelligence pressure.