Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu’s call for early elections initially evoked an instinctive response: Who needs this? The result of normal elections, scheduled for next fall, was predictable: Bibi could look forward to another four years as Prime Minister. He had split…
Tag: Olmert
The Third Choice
THE BLOOD still boils at the sights that came out of Gaza when Israel invaded in March. At least 107 Palestinians were killed, mostly civilians. Houses collapsed on their inhabitants. Hamas went underground, so that the “strongest army in the…
The Winograd Report: Trumpeting the Next War
ON JANUARY 30, 2008, the Winograd Committee submitted its final report on the performance of Israel’s political and military echelons during the second Lebanon War (August 2006). In an earlier interim account, it had severely criticized Prime Minister Ehud Olmert…
The Fading of the Two-State Solution
AFTER RETURNING from the Annapolis Conference, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Haaretz (November 28, 2007) that “the State of Israel cannot endure unless a Palestinian state comes into being.” Olmert had made a like pronouncement in December 2003, when he was…
Gordian Knot
AMID PREPARATIONS FOR the Annapolis Conference, rumors abound that Israeli PM Ehud Olmert is ready to divide Jerusalem along the lines of the Clinton parameters from the year 2000. This calls for division on a demographic basis. The Arab neighborhoods…
Never Never Land
AFTER HAMAS was elected, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) attempted to cooperate with it. This led Israel to claim there was no one to talk to. After Hamas took over Gaza, however, Abbas officially dismissed its government and set…
The Big Fizzle
IN THE TWO years leading to the elections for the 17th Knesset, there was much talk of a “big bang” that would transform political life in Israel. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan for unilateral disengagement was causing major tremors. In…
In the Footsteps of Sharon
IN departing from power, Ariel Sharon leaves behind a new Israeli consensus and a new centrist political party, Kadima (Forward), which will continue to engage the public trust even without him. If his political heir, Ehud Olmert, avoids making grave…