Ultimate Sharon replacement? Ehud Olmert
Photo: Flash 90
Kadima formulates new strategy
New party to bill Olmert as ultimate Sharon replacement; survey shows Kadima still strong. Strategists prepare three-stage plan
When Prime Minister Ariel Sharon entered Jerusalem's Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital Wednesday evening, he did not only leave behind his political career, but also the future of the new party he established, Kadima.
The day after Sharon's dramatic hospitalization with a massive stroke, senior Kadima members attempted to convey a business-as-usual façade. Sharon cannot do it? Olmert will take us forward and bring the "old man" the present he was seeking – an overwhelming elections victory in late March.
However, what was billed as a one-man party is now trying to formulate a plan of recovery and is buoyed by a poll showing the party is still viewed as an attractive option by Israelis.
PM Sharon
Attila Somfalvi
PM's political career over, but Israel's democracy can handle it, Attila Somfalvi writes
This is the plan at least, and Kadima members will attempt to push it forward as of Friday. It will not be simple, however, as the apparent frontrunner who led all polls now has less than three months before elections roll around to market Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as the ultimate Sharon alternative.
Indeed, it appears everyone in Kadima will now be presenting a united front and coming together behind Olmert.
The new strategy received a significant boost following the publication of a survey conecuted by Channel 10 and Haaretz. According to the poll, an Olmert-led Kadima would win 40 Knesset seats were elections held toady. A Shimon Peres-led Kadima would win a whopping 42 seats, while a party led by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni would still win an impressive 38 seats.
But how will Olmert's image be boosted to turn him into a man capable of leading the country? Advisors Eyal Arad, Lior Horev and Reuven Adler will be assigned the task. Their plan is based on three stages: Reorganization of the party, smoothly placing Olmert as Sharon's temporary replacement at the country's helm, and promoting Olmert as a prestigious "brand name," presented as the sane centrist option Rightist and Leftist parties.
This process will be difficult to digest not only for the Israeli public but also for senior figures in Kadima who choked back tears when they saw Sharon’s convoy of black cars driving Olmert to Thursday’s Cabinet meeting. That was the moment when Kadima ministers realized the man who formed the new party by drawing big names from across the political spectrum is lying unconscious in a bed on the seventh floor at Hadassah Hospital’s neurology department.
Even those who had personal political ambitions realized that Ronny Milo’s comment is true: “A fourth place on a winning list is better than the first place in a fourth-spot party.”
Kadima officials are citing a poll published Thursday pointing to the party’s popularity despite the prime minister’s deteriorating health, and are eagerly waiting poll results in Friday’s newspapers.
Advisors were also happy to see Olmert leaving the prime minister’s chair empty and humbly occupying the temporary post. Three months of running the country and the party with zero mistakes should do the job.
And we shouldn’t forget that the team advising Olmert succeeded in transforming Ariel Sharon from an unpopular figure on the international arena to probably the most popular Israeli politician ever.
We must also not forget that under Kadima's new strategy, Olmert is the man who is following in Sharon's footsteps and lifted by the waves of sympathy to an ill leader. And this time, as opposed to the days of Sharon, Olmert has two "wings" to support him - Justice Minister Tzipi Livini to his right and former Shin Bet Chief Avi Dichter to his left. That’s Kadima’s vision for March 29, 2006, the day after the general elections. Only time will tell whether it will be realized.
