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Commentary:
Will Olmert and his corrupt, graft-ridden group of incompetent, political hacks in unison with their leftist-msm partners continue to dictatorially rule Israel after Winograd? Or will the masses of Jewish public awaken, get their backs up and force Olmert and his lazy, protexia-ridden, surrenderist regime to collapse?
Will the people compel deconstruction of the governmental instruments which enable an Olmert and money-grubbing coalition partners to gain power?
The three excerpts from the longer version of the excerpted Caroline Glick commentary below, speak volumes; MB
“It should… surprise no one that in its continued bid to keep the Likud from power, the media ignored the report’s harsh conclusions about Olmert’s mismanagement of the war, seizing instead on the commission’s refusal to assign blame.”
“Bereaved mother Elisheva Tzemach, whose son Oz was killed in the last stages of the war, explained that she demands the government’s resignation not for her dead son, but for her sons who still live. They cannot be commanded in war by Olmert and his colleagues.
If we remain silent now, we will deserve whatever price we are made to pay for our indifference. “
Will We Now be Silent?, by Caroline Glick (Jerusalem Post)
Excerpts;
In March 2006, the Israeli people elected incompetents to lead us. It only took four months for Hezbollah to make us pay a price for our mistake. In the July and August 2006 war, Israelis came to understand that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, then defense minister Amir Peretz and then IDF chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz were together and separately the worst leaders that Israel had ever seen.
Almost from the war’s outset it was evident that Israel’s leaders were in over their heads. They acted as though there was no difference between running a war and running a political campaign against their political rivals. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and his Syrian and Iranian overlords could, they assumed, simply be insulted out of fighting.
The brutal reality of war confounded them.
They had decided to respond harshly to Hezbollah’s cross-border attack which left eight soldiers dead and two soldiers – Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser – missing in action. But they never actually realized that they were leading the nation to war. Indeed, through to the bitter end, they insisted that we weren’t at war at all. We were simply involved in a “campaign.”
They sent up fighter jets to bomb Hezbollah to Kingdom Come. But when the bombing failed to affect Hezbollah’s ability to attack Israel with missiles, and when the televised footage of the bombs’ destructive force squandered international support for Israel, Olmert and his colleagues lost their stomach for the fight they had never understood. They sent ground forces in willy nilly, to conduct operations with no operational logic. Then they begged America to pull their fat from the fire by negotiating a cease-fire without victory.
The public reacted to their failure with justified rage. Demoralized reservists marched on Jerusalem. The parents of soldiers killed in militarily meaningless actions took to the streets. Recognizing that their careers were on the line, Olmert and his colleagues did what any hack politicians in their positions would do. They appointed a committee and told it to take as long as it wished to decide not to call for their removal from office. The media, not wishing to see opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu and the Likud win an election, supported the maneuver. And so the protests abated and the reservists and bereaved parents sat on the sidelines and waited.
When last April the Winograd Committee issued its interim report, it seemed as though Olmert’s plan was backfiring. The committee members, led by retired judge Eliahu Winograd, were dangerously close to missing his point. They actually held Olmert, Peretz and Halutz responsible for their actions. Neither Peretz nor Halutz were able to withstand the interim report which found that they – and Olmert – had failed the test of leadership. And each in turn was forced to resign.
But Olmert held on and quietly conspired against his own committee. With Olmert’s backing, the IDF’s solicitor-general Col. Orna David repeatedly petitioned the Supreme Court and secured rulings prohibiting the Winograd Committee from recommending that Olmert or anyone else be compelled to resign for their dereliction of duty.
So it should have come as no surprise to anyone that in its final report issued Wednesday the Winograd Committee failed to point its finger directly at Olmert and call for his removal from office. It should similarly surprise no one that in its continued bid to keep the Likud from power, the media ignored the report’s harsh conclusions about Olmert’s mismanagement of the war, seizing instead on the commission’s refusal to assign blame.
Civil Fights: Sderot in Sound Bites, by Evelyn Gordon (Jerusalem Post)
Expose’ Links Olmert, Lieberman and Sharon to Jericho Casino, by Ezra HaLevi (Israel National News)
Olmert First, by Yoel Marcus 24 Nov., 2006 (Haaretz)
In truth, by demurring from placing a metaphorical gun to Olmert’s head, the Winograd Committee did the Israeli people a favor. Its members stated flatly that it is the people’s responsibility – not theirs – to decide who leads the country. And now more than ever, it is the public’s duty to protest the continued tenure of the Olmert government and force it from office.
This duty is not simply a matter of historical vindication for past wrongs. Olmert and his colleagues must be forced from office not because of their failed leadership in the 2006 war in Lebanon. They must be forced from office because of their mismanagement of this year’s war in Gaza.
In its most devastating condemnation of Olmert and his colleagues, the Winograd Committee explained that throughout the war, they never decided – and barely discussed – what sort of war they were fighting. Once the government decided to respond forcibly to Hizbullah’s cross-border raid, the commission noted that it had two clear and distinct options for proceeding. “The first was a short, painful, strong and unexpected blow on Hezbollah, primarily through standoff firepower. The second option was to bring about a significant change of the reality in the south of Lebanon with a large ground operation, including a temporary occupation of the south of Lebanon and ‘cleansing’ it of Hezbollah military infrastructure.” Unable to decide what sort of war it was waging, for 34 days the government moved from tactic to tactic, strategy to strategy, never following through with anything, never realizing that there were consequences for what it was doing. And today, it follows the same model of incompetence in Gaza.
FOR THE past two and a half years Israel has taken no effective action to end the rocket and mortar offensive against the Western Negev from Gaza. And rocket and mortar attacks have quadrupled over this period.
Speaking to the media about her decision to join the protesters demanding that Olmert and Barak resign and call for new general elections, bereaved mother Elisheva Tzemach, whose son Oz was killed in the last stages of the war, explained that she demands the government’s resignation not for her dead son, but for her sons who still live. They cannot be commanded in war by Olmert and his colleagues.
Mrs. Tzemach, of course, is right. And Winograd was also right. If Israel wishes to survive in our hostile neighborhood, it is the duty of every citizen to join Mrs. Tzemach, her fellow bereaved parents and the reservists in their demand for new elections. If we remain silent now, we will deserve whatever price we are made to pay for our indifference.