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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| J-Post: Olmert under fire over cease-fire |
| 2006-08-13 |
| The weekend's news about expanded operations in Lebanon and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's acceptance of a United Nations resolution calling for a cease-fire gave politicians on both the Right and the Left reasons to attack the government. MKs on the Right said Israel would regret accepting the cease-fire, those on the Left said it was wrong to send so many troops deep into Lebanon and politicians from across the spectrum said the government had mismanaged the war. MK Zvi Hendel (NU-NRP) said the opposition would resume efforts to topple the prime minister, ending a self-imposed hiatus on attacking the government during the war. He said inquiries would be made into Olmert's handling of the war and that his mistakes would be exposed. "Olmert is not fit to stay in power, he won't last one day longer," Hendel said. "The ministers should listen to [Hizbullah leader Hassan] Nasrallah's satisfaction with the cease-fire to understand how bad it is for Israel." MK Silvan Shalom (Likud) said the cease-fire was one of the worst Israel had ever been offered. He said Israel would not achieve any of its goals, including returning its kidnapped soldiers and the disarming of Hizbullah, while issues like the return of Mount Dov (Shaba Farms) and the release of Lebanese terrorists from jail had been put on the agenda. "If we would have known that this would be of the result of the war no one would have supported it," Shalom told The Jerusalem Post. "Just last month Olmert called UNIFIL worthless pensioners and now they are being entrusted with protecting our country." Shalom said he was also not happy with the news about the IDF reaching the Litani River because the IDF should have entered deep into Lebanon a long time ago. On the Left, Meretz leader Yossi Beilin said that the expansion of operations in Lebanon was a "prize for Hizbullah" that would entail weeks of arduous warfare and heavy casualties. Meretz and Peace Now began demonstrating against the war on Thursday and a columnist in the left-leaning Ha'aretz joined Hendel in calling for Olmert to quit in a column under the headline, "Olmert must go." "If Olmert runs away now from the war he initiated, he will not be able to remain prime minister for even one more day," wrote Ari Shavit. "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.'" |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #1 Predictions of weeks or much less in power have been made. If I had a say and I don't he would be a gonner today. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2006-08-13 07:29 |