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05 May 2007

Truth and Consequences

In the United States, too many pundits regard the thoroughly unpopular politician behind a disastrous war as somehow being popular.

In Israel, by contrast, the unpopular politician behind a war that was not quite so disastrous is indeed considered unpopular.

The young mixed with the old. But they all agreed on one thing - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert must go.

In Tel Aviv's Rabin Square tens of thousands of Israelis gathered on Thursday night in a show of people power to maintain the pressure on the deeply unpopular Mr Olmert.

Even by Israeli standards, Mr Olmert has suffered a bruising few days in politics.

An interim report published on Monday into the government's handling of last summer's war in Lebanon heaped criticism upon the prime minister.

One key difference is that in Israel, when a government commission investigates the government, the commission is not packed with friends of the government who will bend over backwards to avoid criticizing it.

(Another difference, of course, is that in Israel, criticism of the Israeli government is considered to be both patriotic and rational. In the United States, criticism of the Israeli government is somehow almost always considered to be neither of those, and criticism of the American government is often considered to be at least unpatriotic.)

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Posted by Tim W at 5/05/2007 04:09:00 PM

09 March 2007

The Second Time Is Not the Charm

You would think that Israel would have been more cautious in invading Lebanon in 2006, especially given how well that intervention in the 1980s went.

And you would think that having seen how the American pretext of war in Iraq—alleged bad acts by Saddam Hussein—led to an increasingly bloody and useless conflict, the Israeli government might be a tad cautious.

But then you would not be as skeptical of rational-choice theory as we are here. The counterexample of the day is the Israeli government.

Olmert has told the Winograd Commission [that is investigating the 2006 invasion of Lebanon] that his decision to respond to the abduction of soldiers with a broad military operation was made as early as March 2006, four months before last summer's Lebanon war broke out....

Olmert testified before the Winograd Commission on February 1, and its questions focused on three basic issues: the circumstances surrounding Amir Peretz's appointment as defense minister; how and why the decision was made to go to war on July 12, several hours after reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were abducted by Hezbollah guerrillas on the northern border; and why Olmert decided to carry out a large-scale ground operation in Lebanon, 48 hours before the cease-fire, in which 33 soldiers were killed.

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Posted by Tim W at 3/09/2007 09:41:00 PM

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