Raising children

There is at least one area in which Olmert is Sharon's polar opposite
Nahum Barnea

Politicians' families are usually relegated to the back pages of the newspaper. I only bring the issue up here because the candidates themselves use their families as part of their campaigns: Netanyahu invokes his father, noted historian Ben Zion Netanyahu, and his brother Yoni who fell in Israel's 1976 Entebbe rescue mission in his election campaign.

Amir Peretz campaign features his wife and kids, Ehud Olmert sends his older brother to interview on his behalf, and graciously answers questions about his wife's and children's political views.

The traditional role of a politician's family is to be a fitting decoration for the candidate: candidate in the center, dedicated wife next to him, surrounded by kids – the more the merrier, the blonder the better. They are not expected to understand the slogans their father throws around.

Their job is to admire and to love him. It is inconceivable that we, the voters, would trust a candidate whose own family doesn't even trust him, and it is even less conceivable that we would consider someone a father of our nation if he can't even be an exemplary father to his own family.

Historic examples

Many historic examples point to the opposite, from King David to the present time: great leaders have occasionally been terrible family men – narcissistic, self-centered, hypocritical, and deceitful.

Family matters and state matters have always been kept separate. It is not clear whether there is any connection between them.

Still, there is something about the way in which a politician views his family's role in his career. Ariel Sharon and Olmert are two extreme examples. At least in this area, Olmert not only fails to be Sharon's successor, but is his polar opposite.

Task force

The Sharon family was always a task force for one thing: Arik. After Lili Sharon died, Bina Barzel, the legendary Yedioth Ahronoth journalist, said she occasionally saw Arik raise his hand to have Lili faithfully place a drink in the raised hand, or Arik leaning back as Lili rolled a chair under him.

Lili fought his battles, hated his enemies, and loved his friends.

Their two children were soldiers in the task force, lived from his hand, worked on his farm, and sat on the fence for him. Gilad gave his name to the money-rolling operation that became known as the Cyril Kern affair. Omri broke the law in the straw companies affair.

As a Knesset member Omri was fantastically stingy with his opinions. He acted like one of his father's limbs, give and take, according to his father's needs. If there were disagreements between father and son, they were never revealed, lest the father's overwhelming authority crack.

Israeli politics has known many "sons of", from Moshe Dayan to Tzipi Livni. But such a son (or daughter), we've never known.

Different family

Olmert, according to recent interviews, is surrounded by a totally different sort of family. His wife and children have the opposite political views to the father. They have voted for rival parties. The family table was rife with argument, and not always friendly ones. Despite this, the family retained its unity.

His wife and kids are not his soldiers. They are scattered around Israel and around the world. To each his own, and each has his own career. Olmert admits openly that his transition from the right-wing to the political center was influenced by the left-wing views of his family. Not their tactical advice. Their world views.

"It could be that they influenced me more than I influenced them," he says. Sharon would have viewed this admission as a sign of weakness.

The Israeli establishment related with appropriate skepticism to the model offered by the Sharon family. It will be interesting to see how it relates to the model offered by the Olmert family.

We can make one, reasonably sure prediction: none of his children will go to jail for crimes committed to advance their father's career.

Nahum Barnea is a regular contributor to Israel’s leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth