Of course we all know what happened to Barak. As soon as the Palestinians resumed their terrorist violence, he collapsed. Not his government, mind you, but Barak himself. He literally ran from conference to summit to high level meeting begging the Palestinians to stop the violence. The most decorated soldier in Israeli history, someone elected with the hope of continued security and quiet, was so completely panic stricken that within 6 months he had been voted out of office – the only prime minister in Israeli history to be removed from office while the Knesset remained in session.
Of course, Barak was replaced by the only man who could ever come close to him in terms of being perceived as "Mr. Security". Ariel Sharon had a long and distinguished career as a top officer and as the founder of the IDF elite anti-terrorism "Unit 101". Sharon had the experience and the steadiness necessary to properly defend Israel against such heinous crimes.
Sharon took office with 61 people having been killed in this round of terrorism. When Ehud Olmert was elected to office March 28, a further 1044 people had been killed.
Olmert comes to the job with no such glamour behind him. It can be reasonably argued that his influence on the Sharon government after the 2003 election is a large part of the reason for Sharon's incompetence in properly defending against the terrorism that has continued to plague this country. He was mediocre at best while serving as mayor of Jerusalem, and the policies he championed in national government – first and foremost last summer's "Disengagement Plan", have thus far accomplished nothing in the way of increased security. On the contrary, Israel's security is in far worse shape today than it was nine months ago.
But while Barak was a complete failure as prime minister, serving the shortest term of anyone elected to that office, and while Sharon cannot, in the final analysis, be said to have saved Israel from terrorism, Olmert has just started his tenure.
At 1:30 this afternoon, just as the new Knesset was to be sworn in, a teenaged suicide bomber blew himself up outside a shawarma stand near Tel Aviv's old central bus station. Nine people were killed and at least 60 others injured.
In the first test for Ehud Olmert's tenure as prime minister, he has reminded us all of the unmitigated disaster that was the previous Ehud. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, Olmert said, "We will know how to respond in the way and manner required, and we will continue to act with all means at our disposal to thwart further such incidents."
This is a quote taken straight out of Barak's liturgy. He said almost exactly the same thing after each additional attack brought more panic to the "stoic leader" we thought we had elected.
Of course, Olmert didn't come to office with the promise Barak did. He was elected to office never having promised to end terrorism or increase security. He has no plan to limit the casualties still being suffered by Israel as the terrorist onslaught continues. And none was ever expected of him.
Rather, Olmert was elected after promising to continue Ariel Sharon's legacy of giving the terrorists everything they demand with nothing received in return. Israel under Sharon and Olmert is no longer even asking for the promise of reduced terrorism, because they know that such a promise – if they ever got it – would be meaningless. There is no negotiation, we are told, because there is no one to negotiate with.
But, one must ask, if Palestinian promises are so worthless that Israel isn't even asking for them, how can Israeli "leaders" be so completely mindless as to give the terrorists all they are asking for anyway? There is only one logical response such insanity can elicit: Let's kill more Jews. In fact, unless one is a terrorist, there is simply no logic to Israel's position.
Moussa abu Marzouk, a Hamas leader abroad, told Al-Jazeera television today that, "The Israeli side must feel what the Palestinian feels, and the Palestinian defends himself as much as he can."
Perhaps there really is someone to talk to on the Palestinian side. Perhaps Israel's leaders should be taking some hints from Palestinian leaders. The Palestinians have leaders for whom aggression in the name of defense – through whatever means possible – is the main idea. All else is secondary to the holy Jihad. Israelis have Ehud.
Copyright 2006. All rights reserved. Yehuda Poch is a journalist living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission of the author only.
