Israel Matzav

Bloggers foil Olmert's vacation

They're blaming it on the bloggers!

Haaretz reports that the Shin Bet General Security Service has nixed a vacation in Northern Italy for Prime Minister Ehud K. Olmert, forcing him to remain behind the walls of the Prime Minister's residence in Central Jerusalem.

Olmert does not want to go to a Galilee bed-and-breakfast, so as not to ruin the vacation of thousands of Israelis with the Shin Bet's extreme security measures. The prime minister's motorcade (a recognized nuisance in the capital) ran over a young girl who was crossing the street at the entrance to the city on Friday.

Olmert's original plan was to spend his vacation in Italy. He wanted to rent, and pay out of pocket for, a house in a remote part of northern Italy for a quiet week with his family. His aides held a serious discussion about every aspect of the trip, from public relations to security and diplomatic-foreign relations. His men believed the move could send a message of reassurance to the Syrians: If the prime minister is vacationing abroad, he is not readying for war.

...

But after making inquiries, the Shin Bet informed the prime minister that it would not be so simple. If you go, they told Olmert, we'll have to send a Hercules with three armored cars and dozens of security officers. At that point, officials in the Prime Minister's Bureau realized that their problem wasn't Syria, it was with the legions of Internet jockeys who would be chasing after Olmert from their keyboards with axes, pitchforks and flaming torches in various Web forums. The vacation plan was dumped immediately.

I guess it's all my fault that Olmert can't go to Italy. And his sons, who live in New York and Paris, respectively, will have to come here if they want to spend vacation with their father. But look at the 'bright' side. Daughter Dana and wife Aliza can go right downstairs on Friday afternoon to join the Women in Black demonstration in Paris Square. Maybe I should take a room in the Prima Kings Hotel (the other side of Paris Square) and hang a banner out the window calling for his resignation....

Just kidding Shin Bet. With the confiscatory taxes we pay in this country, I can't afford a room at the Prima Kings anyway.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:14 PM