Israelis Want Olmert Out Of Office After His Failure In Lebanon

The well-known Israeli political commentator in the Hebrew Ha’aretz newspaper Ari Shavit has unequivocally called on Israeli premier Ehud Olmert to quit his post and resign for mishandling the war on Lebanon.

“Olmert fell in all possible mistakes starting from his uncalculated decision to go on war against Hizbullah, burying more than 120 IOF soldiers, and sending more than a million settler into hiding in underground shelters for more than a month now”, said the Israeli critic.

He added that Olmert has dragged the entire “Israeli people” to this war and promised them imminent victory over Hizbullah fighters; yet, he added, all his promises proved to be illusions, and therefore, he couldn’t stay in power for one additional day.

The Israeli commentator charged that Olmert was badly exploited by the IOF top brass; but he didn’t ask the proper questions as he delayed without any justified reason the ground offensive that marred the entire plan.

“The time when Hizbullah gets out of the trench and declares victory over Israel, then Olmert has no right to sit in his office”, Shavit opined.

In a clear shift of their compass, Hebrew newspapers started to focus on diplomatic talks in the UNSC to end the war after weeks of backing the Israeli military campaign in Lebanon.

The Yedioth Ahronoth paper revealed that IOF troops in Lebanon were not satisfied with their government’s dithering in taking decisive decisions, saying that such hesitation badly affected their battle against the Lebanese armed group.

Dan Halutz, the IOF chief of staff, who kept whispering in ears of Olmert about his ultimate military victory over Hizbullah fighters, expressed dissatisfaction with the position of his political leadership at the UNSC as he wanted more time to finish the job.

Disputes in the Israeli inner circles weren’t limited to the political-military level; but went deeper into the political leadership itself as Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni angrily packed up her bags to depart for New York, but Olmert ordered her to stay in Israel, according to the two Hebrew newspapers Ma’ariv and Yedioth Ahronoth.

Flexing their muscles for a new round of political struggle after a brief lull forced by the war on Lebanon, the two Israeli hawkish Likud leaders Binyamin Netanyahu and Silvan Shalom described Olmert’s government approval of a ceasefire resolution as “bad and doesn’t achieve Israel’s goals of the war”.

“It is the worst agreement offered to Israel in decades” said Shalom of the UNSC resolution.

Olmert, Peretz Lick their wounds after sharp decrease in popularity:
According to polls conducted by the Dialogue Company, acceptance rate of both Olmert and his war minister Amir Peretz among Israeli settlers was sharply falling as it descended from 75% at the beginning of the war to 48% for Olmert; and from 51% to 37% for Peretz.

The sharp decline, according to the organizers, was attributed to the dissatisfaction of Israeli settlers over the way both officials were handling the war that left them congested in underground shelters for a month now.

Yet; what was interesting in the survey was that only 20% of the settlers believe that Israel will emerge as victorious in the ongoing war on Lebanon.