Name:     Michael L. S.   [E-Mail]
      Location:  Earth
      Website:  Middle East Resource Center

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Well, khevrey, apologies again for my tardiness. Let's get down to business.

It pains me immensely to have to do this but I withdraw my support for Qadimah. I knew ab initio that nothing would be the same without Dr. Sharon but I decided to give Olmert the benefit of the doubt. What are his "sins"?

(1) The Olmert administration officially suspended the pursuit of its flagship policy: hahitkonsut (which, basically, was designed to terminate the occupation of most of the West Bank). The excuse was that the security situation had deteriorated to the point where executing the hitkonsut was no longer practicable or desirable (e.g. the kidnapping of turai Gilad Shalit, the war in Levanon, etc.). That, of course, is a load of shtuyot. While the occupation most certainly is not the source of all problems in the Middle East, there is no excuse for perpetuating it. The people of Israel realized this before the election, which is why Olmert was voted in. (I will elaborate more on the occupation next time.) Nor did Olmert merely "suspend" it; there's little chance of the initiative being reanimated in the future and it is now as good as dead. Now, Qadimah was elected almost exclusively because of Dr. Arik Sharon's proposed policy of hahitkonsut. Olmert has betrayed the electorate.

(2) And speaking of turai Shalit, Aza has been under a massive armed onslaught for almost a half year now. The power has been cut off, food and medicinal supply have been disrupted, and rockets are still raining down on Sderot and Ashq'lon. Over a million people are being punished for the benefit of one khayal; and it is highly doubtful if Tzaha"l is any nearer to securing his liberation than it was June. While the operation was justified initially, it has now lost focus. No benefits are derived from it and the costs are exorbitant and mounting.

(3) Olmert has also failed to confront the blatant violations of law on the part of the settlers. He has done nothing to ensure that illegal settler outposts littering the West Bank are destroyed. Nor has he taken any steps to prevent and sanction settler escapades such as attacking Palestinian olive harvesters and vandalizing olive groves. The settlers are a huge blot on Israel, Jews and Judaism by their very nature. Letting them run rampant with utter impunity makes that blot indelible.

(4) The war in Levanon--while doubtless justified; I supported it myself--was conducted in a reprehensible manner. Something that was second-nature to Maj-Gen. Sharon is totally alien a concept to Olmert: if you decide to make war, go at it full-force; if you decide to make peace, put your utmost into it. Either way, don't do either half-assed but be determined and consistent until you achieve it. That is how Arik did it, in war and in peace. Olmert, on the other hand, waged a war in which the enemy was given three-day notices before attacks, in which international opinion(*) influenced and even determined the course of action on the field, in which footsoldiers' lives were risked and infantry units sustained massive casualties while aerial and other methods were available--all in order to placate that international opinion, in which the fight for the hearts and minds of the Lebanese people was never even begun, and which achieved one great big nothing.

(5) * Olmert's administration has succeeded in alienating much of the world favor and good faith toward Israel, which we had accrued in the wake of Dr. Sharon's Disengagement. Some of it has to do with the actions taken by the new government (q.v. supra) but much of it owes to a mind-boggling ineptitude of Israel's P.R. machinery, which one must wonder whether even exists. From the beginning of the Aza offensive, through the Levanon war to the daily Palestinian and our transgressions and both sides' responses, the administration has made almost no effort whatsoever to dissemble our side of the story. And, more tragically, it has failed to recognize the need to do so and its shortcomings in this respect. In the long-term Israel needs at the very least a satellite channel broadcasting 24 hours a day in Arabic, Persian, Pashtu, Urdu and Indonesian to the Muslim world. More immediately, Israel needs tame-looking spokespeople (preferably women) who can actually speak the language of the intended audience to go on a media offensive. A weekly press conference in Jerusalem doesn’t cut it. (All this, of course, in tandem with a change in policy for the better!)

(6) Another failure of Olmert and his government has been in the remit of bridge-building. Absolutely no progress has made on the diplomatic front whatever. Offers of negotiation from Siniora of Levanon, Asad of Syria, Abas of the P.A. and others--fine, they may have been less than ingenuous but that is beside the point--were all spurned, while concomitantly the old mantra is being regurgitated that we have no partner to talk with. Easily the most stupendously idiotic move came a few days ago when our sara hakhutz Livni declined an invitation from Qatar to come on an official visit. There went an opportunity to foster good relations with a moderate Arab regime. The government tried to wiggle its way out of that one by saying that Khamas representatives would be there and that Livni's presence would have legitimized them but in reality this imbecilic act defies all logic.

(7) The straw that broke the camel's back was the decision to include Liberman and his Yisrael Betenu in the government. For the uninitiated, Avigdor Liberman is an extreme right-wing fascist who has built his political career on anti-Arab racism and scaremongering, and who recently openly and officially advocated ethnic cleansing of Israeli Arabs as well as the institution of an apartheid system of citizenship. Olmert became prime minister on a diametrically-opposite platfom and that he should have included these menuvalim in the government is unforgivable.

Olmert and his gang have squandered the glorious legacy of Dr. Ariel Sharon.

Olmert and his gang must go.

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