Posted on 08/17/2006 4:51:31 PM PDT by tobyprissy
Laborites slam Peretz for supporting talks with Syria By Mazal Mualem, Haaretz Correspondent Senior Labor members are criticizing their party leader, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, for advocating talks with Syria. Peretz called for negotiations with Syria on Wednesday, the day Syrian President Bashar Assad delivered a belligerent speech against Israel. The officials termed Peretz's call "embarrassing," adding that it was politically unwise and seemed like political spin. According to these critics, "Peretz's statement was interpreted as weakness, and it's a shame that in order to divert attention from the criticism against him, he is making use of political spin without understanding that he thereby causes damage to the State of Israel, and also embarrasses the Americans since Syria is part of the axis of evil and helped arm Hezbollah against Israel. Pity he does not realize that he's a senior minister and not the chairman of the Histadrut labor federation." Advertisement Peretz's call also surprised Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who sought to minimize damage vis-a-vis the Americans. Olmert's bureau promptly issued a statement saying that Peretz's position was contrary to that of the Prime Minister's Bureau, which views Syria as part of the axis of evil. Labor Party members also spoke out on Thursday against the inquiry committee headed by former IDF chief Amnon Lipkin Shahak that Peretz appointed to review the defense establishment's performance during the war. Culture and Sport Minister Ophir Pines-Paz cast doubt on the ability of such a committee to get to the bottom of things and said that an external review committee should be considered. MK Matan Vilnai said that the committee appointed by Peretz before soldiers had left Lebanon might turn the army into a scapegoat.
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
"Olmert's Coalition Breaking up?"
We can hope...
It can't happen soon enough.
REading these people, and listening to the FM Tsipi gives the feeling they're living in an alternative -diplo universe. They really believe this is the ripe time for and overall peace deal just after they've empowered Hezb. and Syria. Tsipi expecially, sounded like a John Kerry Global Tester.
This won't take long.
And breaking up his hard to do, except now.
He should have done what needed to be done to rid the world of Hezbollah once and for all, and the world's opinion be damned. The longer we wait for the final showdown with these fanatics, the costlier it's going to be.
Sayonara !......
That's what it's starting to look like. We've got "leaders" that want to treat Islamofascism like a leaky faucet when in reality it's a broken sewer pipe. We gonna need something stronger than a shop-vac to clean this up.
"This won't take long."
Maybe I was reading the tea leaves/leaks wrong but it seemed weeks ago Peretz was the "hawk" and the one pushing for real action.
Including a large mobilization from the beginning.
Calling Bibi.....calling Bibi.......
I posted this earlier so please excuse me if you already saw it....
Accountability Time In Israel
By John E. Carey
August 17, 2006
There are some simple rules of accountability in the U.S. military and in other places in the world. These can be rather ruthless as they enforce strict guidelines of ethics, personal performance and professional achievement.
The people of Israel must make their own assessment of their leaders in this war. But if the tenants of personal accountability followed by the U.S. military are enforced, there will be some changes at the top of Israel’s leadership team in the weeks ahead.
We therefore briefly review some of the players during the last two months or so in Israel.
Foreign Minister
“There can no longer be militias and terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah.”
These words were spoken by Israel’s Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to der SPIEGEL on July 25, 2006.
This promise (or assertion?) was not fulfilled.
Moreover, Ms. Livni was absent from the United Nations in New York while that august body crafted the terms of the cease fire agreement. When she prepared to leave Israel, less than 24 hours before the cease fire was finalized in New York, the Prime Minister sent Mr. Shimon Peres instead of his Foreign Minister.
Ms. Livni will most probably be asked to leave the government.
Defense Minister
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz should retire.
Israel lost 118 Israeli soldiers and 39 civilians in the conflict that began July 12, when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. Reservists also complained of lack of essential equipment.
There were three key objectives of the war:
--Elimination of Hezbollah’s rockets.
--Disruption or annihilation of Hezbollah.
--Return of captured Israeli soldiers.
None of these objectives were met.
The people of Israel now have a diminished confidence in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Israel’s enemies are surely emboldened that the IDF is now no longer seen as invincible.
Mr. Peretz is already trying to implicate defense chiefs in his downfall. As public criticism of the war's handling mounted in Israel, the Haaretz daily quoted Defense Minister Amir Peretz Wednesday as saying top military officers did not relay all relevant information about Hezbollah's arsenal after he took office in May.
There are other controversies involving Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz but they are of no consequence. The fact that Israel waged a war so unsuccessfully, and flattened much of southern Lebanon in the process, is a responsibility that clearly rests upon his doorstep.
Prime Minister
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, already under fire for his handling of the Lebanon war, is facing a possible probe over a Jerusalem property deal.
Olmert and his wife are to be summoned for questioning over the deal by the government's top watchdog, the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper reported on Thursday.
But this could all be window dressing.
Mister Olmert led his nation into war and then lost the war.
Mr. Olmert’s “on again, off again” handling of the IDF manacled generals in the field. His famous 48 hour air assault cease fire was a terrific failure. By withholding the main thrust of the ground offensive to the Litani River while diplomats dithered in New York, Mr. Olmert handcuffed his generals and needlessly put lives at risk.
As Shmuel Rosner reminded Israeli readers in the Haaretz newspaper on Thursday, “This is not a Presidency - it's the constant coalition of the willing, and the weaker the Prime Minister gets, the faster he will be abandoned by his partners.”
Or, as observer Noah Pollak wrote, “To most Israelis, supporters of Israel, and especially to the IDF soldiers I spoke to on the border over the past few days, the cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah that recently went into effect is viewed as a cruel indignity, a dangerous projection of Israeli weakness and equivocation, and a plucking of defeat from the jaws of victory.”
The people of Israel, we expect, will come to their own conclusions on Mr. Olmert.
On The Rise?
So who may be on the rise in Israel? Perhaps Bibi Netanyahu.
Former Prime Minister and hard liner Mr. Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, currently the Opposition Leader, said this week the government needed unity but also needed a careful self-examination concerning the war against Hizbullah terrorists. He criticized the Olmert administration for not declaring an emergency situation at the outset of the war. The former prime minister also attacked Prime Minister Olmert for not accomplishing the return of two kidnapped IDF soldiers and the dis-arming of Hizbullah.
I guess they eat their own...
I guess you people just don't get it? They would have lost all of their tanks in a matter of weeks! This could not be won like that.
Absolutely.
Bring on the Beebster. We need a professional a$$ kicker back in charge.
Interesting to note: Britain was in action at various points and fronts when Chamberlin passed the reins to Churchill.
It wasn't won they way they tried it either!
And things weren't going well on those fronts.
Spot on article.
What's with the fake headline? The article is about Labor condemning its own leader. It is not about Olmert's coalition breaking up.
Articles are supposed to be posted under their real headlines, and this one was not.
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