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JERUSALEM, Aug 25: Israel’s embattled leadership, discredited to an unprecedented extent by the Lebanon war and sex scandals, teetered on Friday under calls for the prime minister, defence minister and army chief to resign.
The increasing pressure on Israel’s elected officials is linked to a series of separate events that all happened on the same day — July 12:
The Hezbollah captured two soldiers, killed eight others and Israel went to war in Lebanon;
Israel’s attorney general decided to open a police investigation into allegations that President Moshe Katsav sexually harassed a woman employee;
Justice Minister Haim Ramon attended a Tel Aviv bash and allegedly kissed a woman soldier against her will, sparking fresh allegations and ultimately forcing his resignation this week.
After a month, the war failed to achieve its aims of stopping Hezbollah rocket attacks, which killed 41 Israelis, or freeing the two soldiers.
Just 113 days since Prime Minister Ehud Olmert took office promising to redraw Israel’s borders with the Palestinians amid the optimism of the Gaza Strip pullout, his government’s approval ratings have sunk to an all-time low.
And never before have Israeli leaders been so discredited by failure and sexual impropriety, to an extent that Mr Katsav reportedly faces even rape accusations.
“The crisis is so serious that the government seems ultimately doomed,” political science professor Shlomo Avineri said.
Although he believes the crisis is not just because of the war, it translates into ‘a lack of confidence in the entire political class’ thanks to the accumulating scandals, the former director of the foreign ministry said.
“It’s time to say goodbye,” screamed a headline in the tabloid-style Maariv newspaper, in general pro-government, urging Mr Olmert, Mr Katsav and army chief Dan Halutz to go.
Gen Halutz should ‘resign before he is forced out’, Mr Olmert should ‘broaden out his government immediately otherwise his Kadima party will collapse’ and Mr Katsav ‘would do better to leave’ without delay, it said.
Indeed, most Israelis want Ehud Olmert, Defence Minister Amir Peretz and Gen Halutz to resign over a litany of failings and mismanagement of Israel’s 34-day offensive — its biggest war in quarter of a century.
OPINION POLL: According to an opinion poll published in the largest circulation Yediot Aharonot daily, 63 per cent believe Mr Olmert should step down, while 74 per cent want Peretz and 54 percent want Halutz ousted over the war.
Mr Olmert’s ratings have never been lower. Three-quarters of the population are dissatisfied with his leadership and only 11 percent feel he is the most suitable prime minister today.
Exposing a strong swing to the right, in which opposition parties could win a snap election less than four months after being defeated, Likud leader and former premier Binyamin Netanyahu was favourite to be premier at 22 percent.
Nevertheless, few Israelis actually want an election, with one option that the right-wing be brought into the government in a bid to help solve the crisis and better prepare for the future.
“Such a cabinet, in addition to achieving practical goals, would probably contribute to morale by restoring public confidence in the government” the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper said.
Analyst Denis Sharbit believes the government will survive, pointing out that having taken office so recently it cannot be blamed for everything.
“There is a certain amount of rabble rousing in the kind of criticism that ‘all politicians are rot’ especially from people who supported the war but complain about its cost, as if there can be war without casualties.’—AFP
