Israel Matzav

Olmert's Hard Road

One may ask, then, how Olmert can keep pursuing a plan that so egregiously flouts political, economic, and strategic reality. And there are yet other grave problems with it. One is the totally unfounded assumption that the U.S., and even the EU, would put a stamp of permanency on the settlement blocs that would remain after the “convergence” so that Israel would not someday enter final-status negotiations with not much left to give except Jerusalem itself. Another is the destabilization of Jordan. Still another is the horrendous civil strife that is certain to result from evicting such a large number of settlers. One has a right to oppose settlement for demographic or other reasons; one does not have a right to pursue settlement, encouraging people to build their lives in places they consider sacred, then come one day with thousands of troops to drag them away and pulverize their homes and synagogues.

To understand why an Israeli prime minister is capable of contemplating all this, it helps to grasp that Israel is a community under stress where leaders like Rabin, Barak, and Olmert seize upon an idée fixe and then pursue it without regard for results, no matter how dire these turn out to be. The best thing George Bush can say to Olmert in three weeks is: “Your plan is a formula for strife and the further empowerment of terror. Go home, have the courage to tell your people to dig in and be strong, and that you have no magic solution for the siege.”

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:07 PM