Israelis turn on Olmert as UN agrees ceasefire

[IndianaGreen]

Israelis turn on Olmert as UN agrees ceasefire

After basking in high approval ratings while the war was being pursued, the Prime Minister faces demands to stand down after failing to deliver total victory. Inigo Gilmore reports from Tel Aviv

Sunday August 13, 2006
The Observer

The future of Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, was last night hanging on how successfully he could sell his citizens the idea that the country had been 'victorious' in the 'war in the north' as criticism of his shaky performance began to escalate amid the first calls for his resignation.
While Olmert's allies and government officials lined up to express satisfaction about the outcome of the UN ceasefire resolution passed while the fighting continued, attempts to present a 'victory' to the Israeli public could not disguise the deep sense of disquiet over the operation's failures and fears that Hizbollah might manage to emerge 'victorious' in the coming days.

For most of the past month as he has prosecuted his war, the Israeli leader has enjoyed high approval ratings and almost unaminous political support across the political spectrum. On Friday he received a call in his office from Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the Likud party, who has been generally supportive of the government's actions aganst Hizbollah, saying he would support the campaign as long as the government did not show signs of weakness and finished the job. He told Olmert that as long as fighting continued the right-wing opposition was fully behind him.

But some on the right have begun to portray the UN resolution and Israel's expected approval of it today as a capitulation by Olmert's government. They included Limor Livnat, a former Education Minister and current Likud member of parliament, and on Friday former Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz, also of the Likud party, became the first parliamentarian to openly call on Olmert to resign. His demand came on the back of a groundswell of outspoken and often scathing criticism of the government's performance from leading Israeli commentators published in this weekend's newspapers.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1843523,00.html

[European Socialist]

1. Olmert should push the oil slick damage--that's a vote getter.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. I guess he didn't kill enough people to suit the Israeli's taste

or something.

[Selatius]

3. We have to worry about Likud

Likudniks like Netanyahu are no partners for peace at all. They're just so intolerant, and they won't even entertain the notion of ending colonialism in the West Bank.

[Peace Patriot]

4. I wish they were criticizing him for the right thing-utter lack of vision

as to what Israel's place in the Middle East COULD BE--not a walled medieval fortress bristling with armaments, not an angry, embattled, vulnerable little country surrounded by enemies--but initiator of a "truth and reconciliation" movement, and a Middle Eastern cultural and ecological renaissance, based on regional self-determination, mutual respect and justice for all of the exploited Middle Eastern peoples. Israel and Iran need to get together and throw the Bush Cartel out of the Middle East. THAT's the kind of bold, creative leadership that is needed! The Bushites are a malignant influence. Israel has made a tragic--and possibly fatal--error in allying with this despised regime, Israel needs to get out of this destructive alliance and think of something BETTER!

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"His demand came on the back of a groundswell of outspoken and often scathing criticism of the government's performance from leading Israeli commentators published in this weekend's newspapers."