I agree with this articel: the Olmert government must be brought down, and a Likud based coalition established which will be better prepared for war, and less focussed on withdrawals.
Analysis: Ceasefire is Bad, Gov't Must Go
15:20 Aug 13, '06 / 19 Av 5766
by Hillel Fendel
Columnist Caroline Glick & int'l legal scholar Prof. A. Bayefsky analyze the ceasefire resolution, concluding it is an "unmitigated disaster" for Israel. Columnist Ari Shavit says Olmert must go.
The conclusions reached by Bayefsky [pictured] and Glick, which appear in a Jerusalem Post article authored by Glick, are summarized below:
* Responsibility for determining compliance is in the hands of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who has "distinguished himself as a man capable only of condemning Israel for its acts of self-defense while ignoring the fact that in attacking Israel, its enemies are guilty of war crimes."
* No mention of Hizbullah-patrons Syria or Iran, thus ignoring the regional aspect
of the war.
* Rewarding Hizbullah's aggression by giving international legitimacy to its demand for territory - namely, the Shaba Farms - via acts of aggression. Moreover, by allowing Lebanon to make territorial claims on Israel despite the fact that in 2000 the UN determined that Israel had withdrawn to the international border, the resolution sets a catastrophic precedent for the future.
* Though Israel had demanded an an arms embargo against Hizbullah, this issue is put off to a vague date in the future - and the power to oversee such an embargo is placed in the hands of the Lebanese government, of which Hizbullah is a member.
* The resolution calls upon Israel to withdraw all of its forces from southern Lebanon even before Lebanese and UNIFIL forces are fully deployed in the area - creating a vacuum allowing Hizbullah to reinforce its positions in south Lebanon.
* The resolution makes no operative call for the release of IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev being held hostage by Hizbullah. "By relegating their fate to a paragraph in the preamble, which then immediately turns to Hizbullah's demand for the release of Lebanese terrorists held in Israeli jails, the resolution all but eliminates any possibility of their returning home."
* It should be assumed that Hizbullah's presumptive victory in its war against Israel will act as a catalyst for violence by Hizbullah allies in Iraq against the Iraqi government and coalition forces in the weeks to come.
* Iran emerges as the main victor in the current war.
* By handing a victory to Hizbullah, the resolution strengthens the belief of millions of supporters of jihad throughout the world that their side is winning and that they should redouble efforts to achieve their objectives of destroying Israel and running the US out of the Middle East.
Shavit Calls for Olmert's Ouster
Meanwhile, Haaretz columnist Ari Shavit called on Friday for an end to Prime Minister Olmert's government. Excerpts:
"...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 [nerve] 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...
"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." |
