Israel's leader offers up yet another excuse for attacking Lebanon

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that outraged even his own citizens with its inanity . . .


Olmert retreats from political firestorm after linking Lebanon to West Bank plan

August 3, 2006 11:01 AM

JERUSALEM (AP) - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ignited a political firestorm by telling the Associated Press that Israel's Lebanon offensive will boost his proposal to withdraw from much of the West Bank.

In the interview Wednesday - his first since fighting broke out three weeks ago - Olmert said he believed the Lebanon conflict will lead to a ''new order that will provide more stability'' and ''create a new momentum between us and the Palestinians.''

Israeli settlers and right-wing politicians exploded in anger over what they called Olmert's manipulation of the Lebanon conflict for his political agenda.

''Olmert has lost his way. He has shot soldiers in the back in the midst of the assault,'' settler leader Pinhas Wallerstein was quoted as saying in the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot.

Columnist Ben Caspit wrote in the Maariv daily that Olmert's remark was ''a combination of leadership folly, characteristic arrogance, pathological stubbornness and extreme insensitivity.''


report: http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=WORLD&ID=564781503838815666

[malaise]

1. I notice he's decided to

leave Sharon's 'imminent death' out of the picture since the attack is lasting way longer than predicted. I believe nothing from the Israeli government or the IDF.

[The Magistrate]

2. However, Sir

A substantial withdrawl from the Jordan valley by the Israeli military would be a good thing. It may be possible that the result of this Lebanon venture has been to convince the Kadima leadership to take some steps to reduce the most basic elements of friction in the over-all situation. Whatever cloak may required to sell it politically to the home folks hardly matters.

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3. or the invasion could accomplish the opposite

elevating the 'elements' that purport to confront Israel

[The Magistrate]

4. It Will Elevate Those Elements, Sir

But the Israelis are in a position to act unilaterally in regard to the Jordan valley, and if their government feels it in their best interests to take some mitigating action there, they can do so on whatever terms they desire. If the statements of those elements that their confrontation is based on opposition to Israeli colonization in the lands over-run in '67 are true, any mitigation of this by Israel should produce a reciprocal lessening of their hostility, and if it does not, will reveal that claim to be a pretense, and demonstrate the hostility runs a good deal deeper. Sooner or later, that would work to the political benefit of Israel, at least in the West.

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6. I see. I do think Olmert is the one most likely to do this

Yet, there is still that faction in Israel, Likkud, I think, who may scuttle any moves to continue to implement the plan or expedite it.

I think the Israeli cabinet has a fine line to walk which is aggravated by the continued attacks. I can imagine them looking for a compromise which would prevent them from having to settle for some long term occupation type incursion in Lebanon like before. The unknown is what Hizbollah will do to prevent any reconciliation as I believe is their intention. I don't think for a minute that Hizbollah wants peace with Israel. They just may succeed in animating the more conservative elements in Israel who believe that MORE force, and more military focus on Syria is what's called for, as well as those elements in Lebanon who believe in the efficacy of confrontation over negotiation.

[The Magistrate]

8. The Likud, Sir, At Least For The Present

Is routed and discredited in Israel. The decision of its political inner circle to defy Sharon over the Gaza withdrawl was suicidal: they seem to have imaged they had a party Sharon needed, when the fact was Sharon was the only reason they had any mass popularity. Neither their war and settlement policies nor their domestic policies are very popular amonmg the Israeli people, and without the prestige of the "old lion" they have nothing.

Kadima, which Mr. Olmert inherited with the incapicitation of Sharon, was formed specifically to execute a policy of phased withdrawl from the lands over-run in '67, or at least most of them, and to do so unilaterally. There are many flaws, from a number of angles, in their vision, and it will fall far short of the ideal, and be unsatifactory to many. It does incorporate a further de facto annexation, namely the security barrier's course, and contemplates maintaining a signifigant portion of the settlements. Against all this, it does have the sovereign virtue of being practicable, as it is something it is in Israel's power to do without bogging down in negotations and hagglings. There is at least a possibility it is a course that will reduce the level of violence, and prove something most among the people of Arab Palestine can live with. My own view is that anything that cuts a zero or two off the right hand side of the casualty figures is to the good, and worth having, even if it is not the best conceivable outcome. There is no particular reason to believe Kadima will abandon the policy that is its forming purpose, and that is the most popular course among the people of Israel.

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9. you just untied at least one knot in my stomach

thanks for your insight. I hope it bears out.

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7. Netanyahu warns on 'fragile' peace plan

Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s right-wing opposition leader, today cast doubt on the ability of a proposed international peacekeeping force in Lebanon to prevent future attacks on Israel by Hezbollah militants.

“We could all engage in self-delusion - not for the first time in the Middle East - and say, let’s establish a ceasefire and let’s get on with it. That tactic of not looking militancy in the eye has not served the democratic world well in the 20th century, and it will not serve it well in the 21st century,” he said.

Although Mr Netanyahu refused to criticise the Israeli government, he did challenge Mr Olmert’s plans to press ahead with a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces from the West Bank, the central policy of his successful election campaign.

Mr Netanyahu said that Israel had been subjected to hundreds of rocket attacks from militant Hamas fighters since its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip last year. He said that evacuating the West Bank would allow the creation of another militant “tentacle” and lead to rocket attacks on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2297670,00.html

[acmavm]

5. I agree. If you use Iraq as an example, killing their kid and

old people hasn't exactly made them jumping up and down in happy anticipation of dealing with us or their Shi'ite government.

You tend to go on a killing spree and you gain some very long term enemies.