Posted on 08/21/2006 5:23:09 AM PDT by Dark Skies
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert should consider stepping down. His resignation would also result in the resignation of the rest of the government, and would thereby pave the way for new elections.
It is clear that conventional political wisdom would advise the prime minister not to do so. "Wait, ride out the storm, and survive," would be the traditional advice.
Not this time. Sooner or later, there will be a commission of inquiry - like there was in 1973, and again in 1982. After the Yom Kippur War, Golda Meir opposed setting up an investigation into the war, as did Menachem Begin a decade later after the (first) Lebanon War . But both committees eventually did the investigations and both leaders were eventually forced to resign.
It would appear that this will happen this time, too. It is hard to imagine the prime minister and defense minister continue to function in their current roles.
The public is angry - hundreds of thousands of people who spent more than a month in the line of non-stop katyusha attacks and who feel the government abandoned them; and reserve soldiers who felt they were thrown into battle without proper equipment and given conflicting orders.
During the war, the prime minister and defense minister waffled back and forth between boasting and hesitation, and showed an inability to make decisions. The entire country saw and heard.
Shock waves coming
Those who believe this anger will blow over are wrong. It will not blow over. It will send shock waves up and down.
What must be ensured at the moment is that the crisis of faith in the government doesn't turn into a crisis of faith in Israeli democracy. Olmert's and Peretz's personal fates are not the question here. The future of the country is the question.
Those who believe everything is alright have nothing to fear from new elections.
This government was given a mandate in the last elections to conduct the realignment plan. Even those who believe - as I do - that such a move would be the best way to reduce the dimensions of the conflict, must now admit that the program will not be on the agenda in the immediate future.
Now is a time to rehabilitate, to heal, to support. This shackled government can't do it, and it's members will be worried about their own survival and with mutual accusations - either before the commission of inquiry or before the fury of the public. But they will not be able to function.
It would also appear that in the next elections, I won't like the results, but again, that is not the question at hand. Now, it is clear as day that Israel cannot be led by two people with no experience or thorough knowledge of security, the army and policy.
Even those who have experience have been known to make mistakes - but those who lack such experience don't know what questions to ask the army or what demands to make from it. We all saw the results.
The public has a right to decide if it wants these leaders, or if it wants change . This must not be left to some or another commission or to the media's incitement. That's what elections are for. That is the nature of democracy.
Prediction : PM Olmart and his government stepping down, new elections before the end of the year and Bibi with Likud stepping up to the plate.
Olmert should resign. I hope in Benjamin Netanyahu who has shown to be a true leader.
Our hope.
Shlomo Avineri is an academic leftist. For him to call for new elections, even though, as he suggests, he probably won't like the results, is an admirable putting of nation over party.
If the Israelis kill Nasrallah within weeks all these calls for Olmert resignation will be over.
If Nasrallah is killed, it still doesn't change the fact that Olmert is not an experienced or capable wartime PM.
My prediction...he will go soon. This situation is too dire for Israel to take any chances.
( No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo!)
Yep. I think things are shaping up nicely (but I still have my fingers crossed).
If Olmert is gone, then the enemy will be emboldened and I do not think at all that if Natanyahu is elected he will go to war to totally destroy what is left of Hizballah.
These guys really do eat their own. Yeah, give Hezbollah another victory of toppling the Israel goverment!
BRAVO!
Idiots!
" == Olmert should resign. I hope in Benjamin Netanyahu who has shown to be a true leader. == "
If Sharon had not been incapacitated, the Kadima policies (delusions?) might still be proceeding, but the war would have followed a far different path. Olmert is a pure disaster - Jimmy Carter with a foreign accent.
Reminds you of Governor Blanco and Mayor Ray Nagin doesn't it...........
However, Natanyahu would be in place should aggression start again giving Israel a good, decisive and bold leader. No, he would not start a war, Israel is slow to anger but when she is pushed, as in this last war, given good leadership, she will do well.
That simple? Hezballah has others to replace him. If they took out Iran's nukes and defanged Iran maybe.
"These guys really do eat their own. Yeah, give Hezbollah another victory of toppling the Israel goverment!"
How does toppling an inept government and replacing it with a competent one that will actually fight Hezbullah count as a victory for the terrorists?
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