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Uzi Landau is a minister-without-portfolio in charge of auditing the secret services and strategic relations with the U.S.
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By Uzi Landau
May 4, 2007
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What is this nonsense about Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni for prime minister? Let's put aside for a moment Israel's self-denigration before the nations of the world, its unstable status, and its flawed public relations efforts, for which the foreign minister is directly responsible. Let's also put aside the question of why she was ineffectual vis-a-vis Olmert during the war. But how did she even become a party to a decision to embark on a war she about which she had no clue? And why didn't she resign right after it if she thought Olmert was unworthy?
Livni concocted Security Council Resolution 1701to bring an end to the war. She boasts about it. If they comply with the agreement, she argued, things will be good for Israel. The results are known: Since the war, Hizbullah continues to grow stronger and enjoys a ceaseless flow of missiles and advanced weapons through Syria. In practice, because of the foreign armies deployed along the border according to the agreement, the IDF will find it difficult to hit Hizbullah in order to protect northern residents.
On which information was Livni's expectation that Hizbullah would deliver on its part of the agreement based ? Which experience did she have when it was time to make such a crucial decision? Had she at least learned history, she would have been careful not to utter a sentence that is reminiscent of what British Prime Minister Chamberlain said before his death: "Everything would have been all right if only Hitler hadn't lied to me."
Livni, with all due respect, is where she is not by merit but by chance. She was able to jump on the right bandwagon at the right time. She has no independent worldview. She zigzagged with her positions based on momentary political benefits to be gained by her opportunism. And while she's finishing up her one-year internship at the Foreign Ministry, she's already rushing to do some basic training at the Prime Minister's Office, at the expense of the public.
Have we lost it completely? Are we going to be guinea pigs again? Can Israel allow itself to undertake more human experimentation?
It's been several days now that resigning Coalition Chairman Avigdor Itzchaky is telling every newspaper and microphone that Olmert must quit to save Kadima. His words represent Kadima well: It is for good reason that his top concern is the welfare of his movement, while he completely failed to mention the good of the country.
The prime minister should not be surprised by the conduct of his colleagues, who are acting like rats scurrying to flee a sinking ship. He knows better than others that most of those around him are nothing but opportunists whose entire existence within Israeli politics stems from an opportunity they happened upon to advance their personal interests. After all, he is the one who gathered them one by one to board the ship.
Kadima epitomizes political corruption. It symbolizes a political culture premised on lies and deceit. It is a party lacking morals and institutions that was able to sell to the public bad merchandise that led to the Second Lebanon War disaster. It did it through the help of Israel's leading spinmeisters and in cooperation with senior media figures.
We haven't seen Itzchaky and his colleagues place a loaded gun on the table before the prime minister when Olmert said the government does not need an agenda or a worldview. We haven't heard them cry out over the government's futility in the face of daily rocket barrages on Sderot. They did not demand that Olmert resign and did not threaten to resign themselves, as long as they believed the reservists' authentic protest will be forgotten. So what happened now? The glue that attaches their rear-ends to their government seats is starting to melt, and this is something Kadima members cannot bear.
Olmert's personal failure, clear to everyone back in August, now has received an official confirmation from Winograd. Yet the rot belongs to Kadima in its entirely, from head to toe. It isn't Olmert who should resign for the sake of Kadima. It is Livni and Kadima in its entirely which should resign for the sake of the country.
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