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Commentary;
Are we finally seeing, with a majority of the Kadima council’s 180 members having voted to amend the party’s constitution allowing a primary, the final countdown to the end of Ehud Olmert’s prime ministership? Or are there yet other rabbits in the hat?
And the potential Kadima successors to leadership? It is obvious that none of the candidates for party leader (possible heir to prime ministership) possesses any more moral integrity than does Olmert.
There is Tzipy Livni, who is portrayed by the media as Israel’s ‘Mrs Clean’, but who has learned to cheat and knave at the very feet of her mentors; Arik Sharon and Olmert. This is the Tzipy Livni whose meteoric rise through to senior cabinet posts was achieved through ingratiating herself to both Sharon and Olmert. This is the Livni who now says;
… A person who breaks the law pays with his freedom; from the normative aspect, one must pay with his office…”
She is followed by a few other lesser lights, equally corrupt and unqualified.
It could turn out that perhaps the most qualified of the entire motley, immoral group is former defense minister Shaul Mofaz, best known for his comical, farcical letter to Likud voters with one foot out of the Likud’s door.
These scandals are NOT ONLY about Olmert, but about the pervasiveness and corrosiveness of corruption, graft and self-aggrandizement as the norm, as a cancer covering the body of Israeli governance; from national down to local levels.
By replacing Olmert with any one of the above, look for nothing more than more of the same; corruption, graft, self-enrichment and misguided national appeasement of an enemy bent on our destruction and eradication.
Replacing one corrupt incompetent with another is not the answer. New elections and fresh, new, competent, uncompromised, uncorrupted, untarnished leadership based on moral integrity is. If the political arena is incapable of finding such leadership and governance, then the people must finally rise up, beat off a mindset of subserviance, and impose moral leadership and governance. MB
Kadima Vote Paves Way to Oust PM, by Gill Hoffman (Jerusalem Post)
Excerpts;
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will be replaced as Kadima leader in mid-September, barring unforeseen circumstances, after the Kadima council received the necessary votes on Monday to initiate a party leadership primary.
It took 12 days of voting, but a majority of the council’s 180 members voted to change the party’s constitution to allow the primary to take place. The next step is for Kadima’s election committee to set a date for the primary and a mid-August deadline for potential candidates to join the race.
Sources close to Olmert said he would likely wait until the last possible moment to announce that he is not running in order to minimize the time that he would be considered a lame duck. Olmert’s associates said there was almost no chance that he would run, because he is aware that he would have no chance of winning.
“It took too long, but I am happy that Olmert is finally on his way out,” a Kadima MK who opposes Olmert said. “I can only hope it’s not too late to save the party and restore the public’s faith in it and its leaders. Olmert is a corpse that has already started to stink and he needs to be removed as soon as possible.”
Coalition Takes ‘Humiliating’ Losses in Knesset Votes, by Rebecca Anna Stoil (Jerusalem Post)
‘Decision on PM Indictment Very Soon’, by Dan Izenberg (Jerusalem Post)
Shaul Mofaz’s Plan to Secure the Premiership, by Gil Hoffman (Jerusalem Post)