[LCM Articles] Olmert cannot remain in the prime minister's office

[Imad Jabbour]

  (Haaretz)

*Olmert cannot remain in the prime minister's office*
  By Ari Shavit <ashavit at haaretz.co.il>

Ehud Olmert may decide to accept the French proposal for a cease-fire and
unconditional surrender to Hezbollah. That is his privilege. Olmert is a
prime minister whom journalists invented, journalists protected, and whose
rule journalists preserved. Now the journalists are saying run away. That's
legitimate. Unwise, but legitimate.

However, one thing should be clear: If Olmert runs away now from the war he
initiated, he will not be able to remain prime minister for even one more
day. Chutzpah has its limits. You cannot lead an entire nation to war
promising victory, produce humiliating defeat and remain in power. You
cannot bury 120 Israelis in cemeteries, keep a million Israelis in shelters
for a month, wear down deterrent power, bring the next war very close, and
then say - oops, I made a mistake. That was not the intention. Pass me a
cigar, please.

There is no mistake Ehud Olmert did not make this past month. He went to war
hastily, without properly gauging the outcome. He blindly followed the
military without asking the necessary questions. He mistakenly gambled on
air operations, was strangely late with the ground operation, and failed to
implement the army's original plan, much more daring and sophisticated than
that which was implemented. And after arrogantly and hastily bursting into
war, Olmert managed it hesitantly, unfocused and limp. He neglected the home
front and abandoned the residents of the north. He also failed shamefully on
the diplomatic front.

Still, if Olmert had come to his senses as Golda Meir did during the Yom
Kippur War, if he had become a leader, established a war cabinet and called
the nation to a supreme effort that would change the face of the battle, a
penetrating discussion of his failures could be postponed. But in blinking
first over the past 24 hours, he has become an incorrigible political
personality. Therefore, the day Nasrallah comes out of his bunker and
declares victory to the whole world, Olmert must not be in the prime
minister's office. Post-war battered and bleeding Israel needs a new start
and a new leader. It needs a real prime minister.
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