An accident named Olmert

[bemildred]

---

These accounts show that the old scheming Olmert is back. Not only did he dodge a state commission of inquiry, but he deflected public criticism away from himself and onto the generals. When he visited the North, he proclaimed that Hezbollah had been beaten and would not be firing any more missiles into Israeli territory. This is the kind of arrogance that calls to mind Yigal Allon's claim that the Syrian plane capable of crossing Israel's border hadn't been invented yet. The next day, a lone Syrian jet created a sonic boom over Haifa.

Olmert's words look like soap bubbles in light of the intelligence predictions that Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Syria, might surprise us next summer with a reprisal attack all across the northern border. It seems that Hezbollah is not going to wait for the conclusions of the Winograd Commission anymore than Hamas is going to sit quietly in the face of humiliation, starvation and attacks by Israel. It won't be long now before Gaza becomes a mini-Lebanon and a launching pad for suicide bombers.

Israel has an illustrious history of leaders who pulled surprises. Menachem Begin, who was elected on a "not-an-inch" ticket, was the one who gave up all of Sinai. Yitzhak Rabin, who was elected as a military toughie, signed the Oslo Accords. Ariel Sharon, who came to power as the settlers' pet, was the one who sent the dream of a Greater Israel to the deep freeze.

Olmert pledged to continue Sharon's path, but he has not kept his word. He is just not built of the stuff of historical leaders. Bringing in Avigdor Lieberman as a strategic minister of strategy, in itself a world first, proves he's not such a smart cookie after all.

Haaretz

[Xeric]

1. A belligerent nation in the M.E.

Armed with nuclear weapons. Its government allied with radical religious extremists and advocates of ethnic cleansing. Also allied with foreign radical theocrats who pray for Armageddon and political extremists who seek world empire ,thumbing their noses at world opinion and the UN. Meanwhile it wages illegal wars using chemical weapons, collective punishment, assassination and economic strangulation.

And we subsidize this?