By Reuven Koret
July 30, 2006
Just over a year ago, in an address to the Israel Policy Forum, then Vice-Premier Ehud Olmert expressed his wish for a new Mideast after implementation of "disengagement":
"We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies, we want that we will be able to live in an entirely different environment of relations with our enemies."
Now -- after nearly three weeks of Operation "Change of Direction" -- Olmert's tiredness and defeatism has become his national policy. Even as the nation wakes up to the catastrophic failures of Ariel Sharon's "disengagement" and of Ehud Barak's night-flight from Lebanon, the current Prime Minister seems to be sleep-walking through the current crisis.
Despite our soldiers' courage, their drive to win and defeat our enemies, despite the fortitude of the residents of the north, and the south, we have been betrayed by weak men who have proven themselves cowardly, indecisive, and amateurish, unworthy of leading our nation.
Faced with the kidnapping of our soldiers and thousands of rockets on our towns and cities, south and north, Olmert and his cabinet squandered the opportunity to confront the enemy and defeat it decisively. Instead they behaved like deer caught in the headlights of responsively. Apparently traumatized by the "legacy of Lebanon," they froze, and failed.
Israel had a chance to rout Hezbollah. The IDF knew how. The general staff begged the political echelon to let the army do the job, massively, with simultaneous multi-point strikes on Hezbollah positions. Olmert squandered the chance. He dillied and dallied. He focused on achieving a symbolic victory in one small border village, Bint Jbeil, rather than dealing with the larger problems of Hezbollah launchers throughout southern Lebanon. Bint Jbeil turned into a symbolic defeat, even if the valiant IDF recovered and made the best Now it may be too late.
The price of Olmert's failure is incalculable. Our enemies now see us as weak, frightened, paralyzed. Hamas and Hezbollah broke the taboo of firing at will on our population, sending millions into bomb shelters, killing innocents, changing forever our way of life. They will use larger rockets with longer ranges and eventually, we have reason to fear, non-conventional warheads.
Olmert stripped Israel of its deterrence. That lesson is not be lost on Syria and Iran. Olmert degraded Israel as a strategic ally. That lesson is not lost on the United States.
After a promising start, the last weeks have shown the weakness of a democracy headed by incompetent weaklings.
In the coming weeks, despite his denial today, we can expect Olmert to release terrorist murderers in a prisoner exchange, withdraw from our strategic position on Mount Dov, and rely on French and perhaps German soldiers to protect our citizens.
No doubt Olmert will eventually cave in completely, energetically declare victory, talk about painful sacrifices, and proceed with plans to put the rest of Israel within rocket range with his insane policy of "convergence," "realignment," "hari-kiri" or whatever the latest name for his plan for collective suicide is called in government corridors these days.
Yea, just as he promised, Ehud Olmert has created "an entirely different environment of relations with our enemies" -- one where we are weakened and vulnerable to their attacks, one where terrorist lilliputians lick their chops at the prone Gulliver and celebrate his public transformation into an incompetent pitiful giant, worthy of shame.
Turns out that Olmert is not so tired after all. He's just a loser, surrounded by losers. And in just a few weeks he has turned our army and our nation into a loser.
Is there a chance our "tired" Prime Minister minister might rouse himself and his government at the last minute, stand firm against the pressures of the United States and the rest of the world, and deliver a stunning blow or ultimata that will wipe the smile off the faces of Nasrallah, Assad, and Ahmadinejad? Sadly, I think the chances are about the same as Ariel Sharon arising from his coma.
So the question is whether the citizens of our nation, with patriotic instincts to back their political leaders in time of war, will listen instead to their survival instincts and demand the resignation of those who have stage-managed this flop?
Will the people of Israel show the door to wannabe leaders who have risen to the limits of their incompetence and flaunted their failure under fire?
It's hardly ideal in wartime to replace governments, but the time has come to cut our losses and expel our "tired" losers. They are incapable of dealing with the threat that awaits, just around the corner.
It's time for the nation of Israel to wake up and smell the approaching fire, because our so-called leaders have fallen asleep at the wheel.
Views expressed by the author do not
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