What complete idiots Ehud Olmert and his Israeli collaborators have turned out to be. And nowhere more have they proven to be complete idiots than in their complete inability today to take advantage, for the sake of the people and government of Israel, of the clear disarray among the Arabs -- including among the so-called "Palestinians" who have in recent days put on a display of such astounding internecine ferocity and viciousness.
This internecine war has exposed every bit of nonsense ever spouted by the supposedly beloved "Chairman Arafat." His villa and some of his loot was ransacked in a rage by those who were not part of the ruling class, that is, not part of Fatah, but who instead had to endure the spectacle of the extraordinary diversion of funds by Arafat and his henchmen. The same diversion of funds still goes on today, and will go again at the old accustomed levels if, as Olmert promises, Israel eagerly promotes the crazed notion that Fatah should be supported over against Hamas.
In reality, the Slow Jihad of Fatah is not a whit better than Hamas. Oh, Fatah is more corrupt, to be sure, and the two groups differ on such matters as tactics and timing, but that's all. Both Hamas and Fatah share the same goal of destroying Israel, destroying any possibility of an Infidel, in this case Jewish, sovereign state, and they will each do whatever it thinks best to achieve that end. The end is illegitimate, as are the "legitimate" rights of the non-existent "Palestinian" people. The Arab Muslims are not entitled to rule in that small sliver, Western Palestine, that was the only part set aside by the Mandate for Palestine for the Jewish national home. There are vast territories with vast unmerited riches inhabited by Arabs. There are twenty-two Arab Muslim states where not a single non-Muslim or non-Arab minority has a stake or say in the government, and where not a single non-Muslim or non-Arab minority enjoys autonomy, nor the tender solicitude that the "Palestinians" have managed to receive because of both the machinations of the Islamintern International at the United Nations, and of assorted willing collaborators of Islam and the Arabs.
Some of these collaborators are merely antisemites; others are merely wildly uninformed about the history, and the context, and the significance, of the respective Jewish and Arab claims. They are also certainly uninformed about Islam and its claims -- claims that cannot be met by further Israeli concessions of any kind.
The farce was exposed. Ehud Olmert had only to point it out, or at least do nothing to get between that "Palestinian" unmasking, of everything, and the spectators worldwide. But Olmert couldn't do even that. He is now trying to help -- for god's sake, help -- the suddenly wrapped-in-the-mantle-of-pious-virtue the equally violent, slightly less strident, and much more corrupt Slow Jihadists of Fatah.
Ehud Olmert is easily the worst leader Israel has ever had. He is far worse even than Ariel Sharon, or Menahem Begin with his sentimentality and pathetic desire to please -- please, that is, the likes of his "friends" Anwar Sadat and Jimmy Carter -- at Camp David. Given its size, given its state of permanent imperilment, given the gigantic size and the unmerited wealth of the forces arrayed against it, Israel cannot easily endure, or even survive, much more of this political mediocrity.
It is bad enough for the United States when it is held in thrall to policies that make no sense, for the United States is militarily and economically, thank god, still the most powerful country on earth, though its political class has proved itself most adept at squandering so much of the wealth and well-being of its citizens. Tiny Israel does not have the Atlantic and the Pacific doing guard duty, nor a benign state on its borders, as the United States has Canada to its north, and Mexico that is not a military threat, whatever other kind of threat unhindered migration from the south might pose.
For Israel today, as ever, there is no margin for error. And Ehud Olmert and those who still take him seriously are that error.
Greetings:
If it were only Olmert.
I can't believe the rush to find an excuse to start funding Fatah again. Let's send them more money and weapons, like they won't end up with Hamas, too.
My father used to say that there's a difference between a reason and an excuse. An excuse is a bad reason.
Hamas and Fatah are two sides of the same coin. How difficult is that to comprehend??????
What complete idiots Ehud Olmert and his Israeli collaborators have turned out to be.
"Puuh-leeeze" Mr. Fitzgerald; what EXACTLY are you trying to say?
Can you be a little more direct so that your meaning does not escape?
My only argument here is that Olmert et al -- were complete idiots going in; have become more so in their evolution; and like Blair, who almost single-handedly destroyed England via the pen, have the dubious distinction having almost destroyed Israel by the same means.
Hilarious, is it not? Five Arab nations with all those armies couldn't do anywhere near the damage that Olmert and company have done!
Typical....amusing how the pathetic peaceniks of labor have crept back into power for the past few years.....that's all Kadima was...well done General Sharon....Gaza withdrawl worked out well didn't it?
Should have stayed a General
Olmert and his self-seeking, corrupt ministers will have to be replaced before israel can hope to once again become what it once was: feared by the Arabs, respected by the rest of the world.
This requires a change of the structure of the government of Israel. Representatives responsible to the people in their districts (as in the US) instead of to the "party."
The problem is not so much the idiots in the government, it is the lack of comprehension, motivation, and drive to survive of the Jews of Israel.
The "secular" are like our American Left, liberals, hands-outreaching-to-the-mosque types. The kippot-wearing ones are too few, in the "settlements" (that is Judea and Samaria, the hard-core in Hebron).
unicorns62000 makes some great points, as did Fitzgerald.
Although by nature a pessimist, I do see a tiny spec of light at the end of the tunnel. That spec is Moshe Feiglin and his Jewish Leadership faction within Likud. Feiglin is so atypical of Israeli politicians that he could indeed be the one to rescue Israel from itself. He understands, I think, the power that can be harnessed by uniting the religious Zionists, the secular Zionists/Nationalists, and the huge, yet politically impotent Oriental (i.e., Sephardic) Jews of Israel. There is enough common ground and lack of animosity among these three groups to form not a majority, but a significant minority that could remake the Israeli political environment. Feiglin is in that growing camp of those who know their local history, and are determined to learn from it. He also is willing to sacrifice U.S. money and world opinion (the alter at which most Israeli pols worship) when keeping those things runs counter to Israel's own national interests. He has gained enough momentum to cause Netanyahu, an arch-typical Israeli politician, to elbow his way into Feiglin's support base by proclaiming that Israel's future is dependent on the Land of Israel, the People of Israel and the Torah of Israel(!). This from a solid secularist who allowed himself to be duped into giving away Hebron, the second holiest Jewish city, for absolutely nothing in return, in order to avoid upsetting President Bill. Why Likud and not his own party? Feiglin desires to break the pattern of well-meaning Religious-Zionists who form a party of their own and end up bargaining for money and priviledges instead of leading the country. This could only be done from within Likud, Kadima or Labor. Anyone who supports a strong Israel should endeavor to support Feiglin and the Jewish Leadership Faction of Likud.