Israeli News: A Daily Analysis

Major Events in Israel and the Middle East
A Daily Analysis
By Marc Schulman

Israel Reacts to Winograd

Tuesday , May 1, 2007

It is becoming clear that the days that Ehud Olmert will be Prime Minister are numbered. Today, the calls for his resignation have grown with the coalition whip, Avigdor Yitzhaki, asking Kadima ministers who would support asking Olmert to resign. The big question is what Minister of Foreign Relations Tzpi Livni is going to do. There is a growing sense that she is ready to act, while there are some who oppose that and are pushing for Peres to become the interim Prime Minister.

MK Eitan Kabel of Labor, who had been a minister in Olmert's government, resigned today. He stated that he can not sit in a government with Olmert as its Prime Minister. On Thursday night there will be the major demonstration in Tel Aviv calling for Olmert to resign. Political analysts believe that if a large number of people show up for the demonstration Olmert will be forced to resign sooner rather then later.

Today in his one public appearance for the appointment of the new chief of the Israeli Police, Olmert looked terrible. He looked exhausted - it was not the picture of the man you want to be leading your country.

There were a couple of positive points in the Wingorad report amongst all the bad news. Three people stand out for warning the government not to begin the campaign: Amos Gilad, the head of the Shin Bet, Meir Dagan the head of the Mossad, and the Amos Gilead, who headed the ground troops command. They all said that Israel was not ready for a war. They added that a war could not be won in the air and that it would not change anything. Unfortunately no one was listening.

The report also stated that the Air Force was prepared, acted well, and learned operational lessons quickly. Let's just keep air force personnel in the air force [for those who have forgotten, the former Chief-of-Staff, Dan Halutz, who received much criticism from the Winograd Commission's report, made his career in the Israeli Air Force.