|
|
Noose tightens around embattled Israeli leadership
Posted By Emma Sabry
On Monday, a scathing interim report into the Israeli government’s handling of last summer’s conflict with Lebanon’s Hezbollah concluded that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert launched the war hastily without a comprehensive plan.
Accusing Olmert of a “severe failure in exercising judgment, responsibility and caution”, the six-month government inquiry, led by retired Judge Eliahu Winograd, unleashed a crescendo of criticism and triggered widespread calls for the beleaguered prime minister and his defense minister Amir Peretz to resign.
"A Gun to His Head" and "He Needs To Go" screamed headlines in the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot daily. "Olmert on His Way Out," suggested the daily Maariv, while the liberal Haaretz settled for "Tightening the Noose".
The language of the Winograd report was blunt, unsparing and to the point. It’s even more powerful because the commission had been appointed by Olmert.
An article on Haaretz said the report contains "not even one lenient word to which the prime minister could cling in order to extend his term".
A survey carried out by public radio showed that 69 percent of the Israeli public believes that Olmert must quit and 74 percent thinks that Peretz should also go.
For many Israelis, the Winograd report confirms what they had thought for the past ten months: a war led by bungling leaders, who failed to retrieve two soldiers captured by Hezbollah in July – an excuse Israel used to launch the war – or crush the Lebanese resistance group.
"There is a real satisfaction hearing the truth," said Baruch Eitam, 33, an army reservist who took part in last summer's war.
Opposition MPs from the dovish Meretz as well as the hard-line National Religious Party demanded the prime minister to follow former chief of staff General Dan Halutz, who has already resigned over the army’s mishandling of the 34-day conflict with Hezbollah, which claimed the lives of more than 1,200 mostly Lebanese civilians and about 160 Israelis.
The pressure on Olmert intensified today, with politicians from across the political spectrum calling on him to step down.
The deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said she would meet Olmert later today to deliver what Israeli media reports described as "an ultimatum."
Livni, a frontrunner to replace Olmert if he resigns, would tell the prime minister to quit quickly or she would lead a revolt against him within his own centrist party, Kadima, which held an extraordinary session today to discuss its response to the damning report.
According to Reuters, Kadima members in parliament already started drafting a letter urging Olmert to quit. "A leader can only lead a public where he has, firstly, legitimacy and its confidence. The prime minister should act responsibly and resign to allow a new coalition to be formed by Kadima," Avigdor Yitzhaki, Kadima's faction leader, told Israel Radio.
"I will tell the parliamentary party today that the prime minister must resign and if he does not do so, I will quit as leader of the coalition,” Yitzhaki added.
The fallout appeared to spread when Peretz’ aides told Israel Radio and Army Radio he was considering stepping down.
Despite the crescendo of criticism, Olmert says that he is not going to resign, vowing to remain in office and implement the lessons of the report.
"It is primarily incumbent on this government, which is responsible for the failings, to also be responsible for fixing them," he said today at the first cabinet meeting since the release of the report. "I suggest that all those who are in a hurry to take advantage of this report and make political gain -- slow down."
But many Israelis do not consider Olmert as the man who can sort out the mess, particularly because his approval ratings have sunk to unprecedented lows over his involvement in alleged corruption including real estate deals and undue interference in government transactions to favor friends and backers.
However, analysts say that for now, Olmert's coalition looks like it will hold together. The coalition's major parties do not want to face an election barely a year after the cabinet took office.
Olmert's biggest worry at the moment is that Kadima turns on him, according to Menachem Hofnung, a professor of political science at Hebrew University.
"If a third of his party decided to defect then they can form a new coalition," he said. "And if that happens then he's doomed."
Another political analyst predicted that Olmert's reign was over – it’s just a matter of time. "The only question is whether the public will oust him now or [if] political manoeuvrings will do it in the next four to five months," said Yaron Ezrahi, a professor of political science.
However, many Israelis hope that Olmert will step down on his own.
"The bottom line is that Ehud Olmert needs to go," wrote commentator Nahum Barnea in a Yediot editorial. "Because if after a report like that... Olmert continues to serve as prime minister, there will probably never be any personal accountability here."
|
|
