Go Olmert go - part II

[Behind the Aegis]

In spite of all the disappointed hopes, all the numbers that flashed across our television screens and all the political commentary that clogged our ears and turned our brains to mush, nothing terrible has happened.

Kadima, though it won fewer votes than expected, is still the largest party. Ehud Olmert, who thought he would be the big winner, came away with less power than he had hoped. He was looking forward to being a kind of Ariel Sharon, who won 38 seats for Likud.

But what good did it do for Sharon, bestowing all of these riches on the Likud in the 2003 elections? They ran him ragged. They put a spoke in his wheel. Although he carried out the Gaza withdrawal despite their protests, and twisted arms to ensure their support, they turned him into Prometheus bound. Who knows - and I hope I'm not being too outspoken here - if there isn't some connection between this disgraceful treatment by the Likud and the stroke he suffered?

Kadima didn't get what it wanted, but it is still Israel's No. 1 party. Kadima and its leader will form the next government. As the experts sit with their scratch pads, it doesn't matter what combination they come up with: Olmert has a majority for putting together a peace government and continuing Sharon's legacy.


more...

[barb162]

1. Olmert has what it takes; I think he'll be a good leader

He'll be good at consensus too

[Englander]

2. Is it possible for a leopard to change it's spots?

Is it possible that a 'lifelong Herutnik' could be good at consensus? I hope so.

'THE SITUATION: Olmert Poised To Become Sharon's Heir
By ofer shelah
January 13, 2006

It's a stunning turn of events, the latest in a series of twists and turns in Olmert's political career. Olmert, who turned 60 this past September, is a career politician (he became the youngest Knesset member at age 28) and a lifelong Herutnik, identified with the hard-line Greater Israel party once led by Menachem Begin. Indeed, he is one of the Princes of Herut, lineal heir of Begin's so-called Fighting Family of firebrands — including Olmert's late father, Mordechai — who fought in the pre-state Irgun underground and then followed Begin into politics.

Olmert was born in 1945 near Binyamina, a 19th-century village near Haifa where his father had a farm. As a child he suffered from the blatant discrimination openly practiced against Begin's followers by the Labor establishment during Israel's early years. Unlike his three brothers — one of whom, Yirmi Olmert, became a high-ranking army officer and now heads the Israeli Basketball Federation — Ehud became intensely political.

He first burst onto the public scene at age 21. Discharged after serving in the Golani infantry brigade and on the staff of the soldiers' magazine Bamahane, Olmert did the unthinkable: He publicly demanded the resignation of the revered Begin, because of his repeated electoral failures. After the quixotic gesture, Olmert quit Herut and joined a right-wing splinter group, returning to the fold only in 1973, when the Likud was formed, at Ariel Sharon's initiative, in a merger of Herut and smaller groups. Later that year he entered the Knesset.

>snip

In his views he was long considered far to the right. His law practice included land deals for Jewish settlements. He spoke out stridently against territorial compromise with the Palestinians, never deviating from his movement's Greater Israel doctrine. He went so far as to oppose Begin's 1978 peace accords with Egypt and the ensuing withdrawal from Sinai (which was carried out by none other than Defense Minister Sharon).

Within his own family, however, Olmert became what he jokingly termed "a political deviant." His wife, Aliza, a painter, is considered left of Labor in her views, and so are Olmert's four children.

http://www.forward.com/main/article.php?ref=shelah200601111052

[Behind the Aegis]

3. It is a start...

However, no matter who won, seems some would never have been happy. At least, Netenyahu is now without power!