Weekly Commentary: Olmert team lacks moral authority and ability to
negotiate robust agreement

Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 15 May, 2008

"There aren't enough casualties. It wasn't a mega attack," he said with a
tone of frustration in his voice in a live telephone interview broadcast on
Israel Television Channel Two shortly after the Ashkelon mall/medical center
was hit by a rocket.

No. It wasn't an Arab spokesman. It was an angry Israeli explaining why he
didn't expect the latest attack to break the Olmert team out of its ongoing
stupor and finally take serious measures to defend the residents of
Ashkelon, Sderot and the rest of the communities within striking distance of
the abandoned Israeli communities in the Gaza Strip that have been
transformed into rocket launching areas.

And the Olmert team makes no bones about this.

This is what Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in his prepared remarks as he
met with President Bush moments before the rocket attack:

"We hope that we will not have to act against Hamas in other ways with the
military power that Israel has not yet started to use in a serious manner in
order to stop it."

That's right. He admitted, for the record, that Israel has yet to use the
IDF "in a serious manner" to defend the citizens of Israel.

Reality check: Rabin's Labor Party trounced the ruling Likud back in the
Summer of 1992 with an election campaign that blamed Shamir for failing to
address a wave of terror attacks.

No. They weren't rocket attacks.

They weren't bombings.

They weren't sniper attacks.

They were some knifings.

That was before Oslo.

But instead of learning from the serious deterioration of conditions as a
direct result of Oslo and policies in its spirit, there are those who
doggedly insist we ignore reality.

We stand at the edge of the abyss and they call for "movement forward" as
the Olmert team fails to fulfill the fundamental obligation of any ruling
authority: to act to defend its public.

The Olmert team can, as FM Livni frequently does, talk on a theoretical
level about Israel's requirements.

But a government that cannot figure out how to protect its citizens has
neither the moral authority nor the practical ability to negotiate a
genuine, robust, agreement with the Palestinians.

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il