Open warfare
Prime Minister Ehud K. Olmert has decided that if he can't be Prime Minister anymore, he will at least make sure that Foreign Minister Olmert unleashed an unprecedented fierce attack on his Kadima rival, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, on Monday reportedly calling her a "backstabbing liar."It's clear that Livni's campaign theme will be clean government - and it's an area in which she holds an advantage. One of the reasons Olmert remains in power is that those who might be in a position to depose him (Binyamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak, Avigdor Liberman) have skeletons in their closets too - albeit nowhere near as many and nowhere near as serious as Olmert's.
According to a report by Channel 2 political correspondent Rina Matzliah, Olmert said in closed conversation that Livni was the least qualified out of the four Kadima leadership candidates and that she had lied to the Winograd Committee that investigated the Second Lebanon War.
"Livni is not made from the material that leaders are made out of," Olmert said according to the report. "She cannot make big decisions. She never has, not as justice minister and not as foreign minister."
A Livni associate said in response: "So he said it. So what?"
Earlier Monday Livni had said that Israeli politicians who engage in corruption must pay with their office. She added that the Israeli public must do its part by supporting only honest candidates.
It is important "to say no to temptations which are offered clandestinely, to say no when that becomes a norm that society cannot accept," the foreign minister said during a conference on democracy at the president's residence in Jerusalem.
"From the criminal aspect, a person who breaks the law pays with his freedom; from the normative aspect, one must pay with his office," she said.
"Everybody in the political sphere understands the extent to which corruption [demonstrates] weakness," Livni continued. "Strength is necessary in order to compete with temptations and daily demands."
Politicians and the Israeli public must drum up the courage "to say no to corruption and to retain the values and norms of the State of Israel," she said.
"The job of each and every one of us is to find that strength, and the public [must also do its part] and support honesty...if we don't fight corruption and the lack of public faith in the government, citizens will abstain from their most basic and important thing - the right to vote.
"I can understand the public's anger, but we cannot give in to despair," the foreign minister added.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:39 PM
4 Comments:
The attack by the PM on Ms Livni was nasty and uncalled for.
I like Tzipi.
Nevertheless, there will NEVER be another Golda!
I hope these Isralei politics can soon get straightened out.
We need a leader who is totally in favor of Israel. Period!
As an American, I say bring back B.B.
I hate to say it here but this is happens to be one of the rare times I find myself in complete agreement with Ehud Olmert. He's absolutely right about Tzipi Livni - she's simply Olmert without the corruption and would be a disaster for Israel as Prime Minister. She's the least qualified person in Israel for the nation's top post.
Delle,
If you like 'Tzipi,' you are probably not a regular reader. She is the most dangerous of the candidates to replace Olmert. She's Olmert's leftist politics without the corruption that has proven his undoing.
Somebody please identify who is really qualified to step up as Prime Minister now. Is there ever a competent new face, or does it always have to be musical chairs, in which all the failed leaders stay on the eligible list?
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