Most Israelis want Olmert to go, poll shows

Cronus333

I think that the Israelis won't punish Kadima come elections. It is a senior party and the only realistic counterpoint to Likud. Sure it will lose seats but look at the other Left wing parties, all of which are part of or cooperate with the ruling Israeli coalition:
Labour: 19 seats. Not only a junior coalition partner but the leader is Defence Minister! Despite it being second largest party it is a junior partner with few ministries. also its well known members, such as Shimon Peres defected to Kadima. Polls indicate it would return 9 seats! Quite a low for the party of Barak, Rabin and Meir.
Gil: 7 seats. A single issue party (the elderly) that got positions in government that allow it to deliver nothing. Remarkably silent of late. Could prove to be a flash in the pan and will disapear below the threshold from whence it came.
Meretz: 5 seats. Does not sit in government but votes with them on most issues. It is the most dovish party in the knesset following the destruction of Shinui and Hetz last election. It has been in decline almost since it's inception in the late 80s. Could not agree in regards to the Gaza pulout and the current war. Its current low poll rating, despite the destruction of it's traditional rival Shinui, could mean the end of Israel's longest lasting peace party.

Cronus333

I think that the Israelis won't punish Kadima come elections. It is a senior party and the only realistic counterpoint to Likud. Sure it will lose seats but look at the other Left wing parties, all of which are part of or cooperate with the ruling Israeli coalition:
Labour: 19 seats. Not only a junior coalition partner but the leader is Defence Minister! Despite it being second largest party it is a junior partner with few ministries. also its well known members, such as Shimon Peres defected to Kadima. Polls indicate it would return 9 seats! Quite a low for the party of Barak, Rabin and Meir.
Gil: 7 seats. A single issue party (the elderly) that got positions in government that allow it to deliver nothing. Remarkably silent of late. Could prove to be a flash in the pan and will disapear below the threshold from whence it came.
Meretz: 5 seats. Does not sit in government but votes with them on most issues. It is the most dovish party in the knesset following the destruction of Shinui and Hetz last election. It has been in decline almost since it's inception in the late 80s. Could not agree in regards to the Gaza pulout and the current war. Its current low poll rating, despite the destruction of it's traditional rival Shinui, could mean the end of Israel's longest lasting peace party.

toomevara

Cronus333 wrote:

I think that the Israelis won't punish Kadima come elections. It is a senior party and the only realistic counterpoint to Likud. Sure it will lose seats but look at the other Left wing parties, all of which are part of or cooperate with the ruling Israeli coalition:

I would disagree. I'd say that the Israeli electorate will punish the Olmert government severely at the next election. The major benificiaries will be the Likud and more particularly Netanyahu and his loyalists who are the only members of the Israeli body politic to emerge on the plus side of this equation.

Netanyahu has played his cards very astutely by not criticising Olmert during the conflict and there is a feeling in Israel that had he been in charge the situation would not have become such a debacle for the Israeli across all fronts, military, political and media.

This is a position i'd agree with, Olmert and his administration were completely out of their depth and were clearly manipulated by the military into a disastrous over reliance on air power to fight a low intensity guerilla campaign. The current IDF chief of staff is a former Air Force man and its clear the whole campaign was adveresely affected by his input.

MichaelMartin

The Israeli military wanted to push on and was `strongly opposed to a cease fire. A couple of years ago the Pentagon was opposed to going to war against Iraq. But Bush did so in spite of this. Strangely enough, there seems to be always a conflict of interest between the political leadership and the military hierachy. In both conflicts the governments should have listened to the military, as far as I am concerned.

Jakkass

Jakkass wrote:

In the Irish Times this morning I read this article and infact most Israelis now want their PM Olmert to go as he never really found a solution to retrieving the two captured soldiers and that 157 Israelis had to be killed for nothing. "Hundreds of Protesters gathered at the cemetery in Jerusalem yesterday calling for Olmerts resignation".

I'm not surprised. If I was an Israeli, I too would be upset with a Government that caved in to international pressure and stopped the war before the missing soldiers were recovered, which was the reason given for going to war in the first place. By no stretch of the imgination can this be called anything other than a defeat for the Israelis. They should power up the war engine and go back in on a serious footing to retrieve the soldiers and take Hezbollah at some meaningful level (if that is possible in guerilla conflict), but certainly move away from handing out a beating to soft targets like Lebanese civilians and infrastructure.