Advice on crisis management
Helpful tips for Olmert, Peretz, Netanyahu, and Barak
Public relations saved the company from collapse by proposing an extraordinary plan for handling the crisis. Namely, to take responsibility for what had occurred, expose the media to the handling of the situation and to correct safety measures by sealing all packaging. The company was successful in winning back public trust.
Following are proposals based on the above model to four politicians in the midst of a crisis – two who refuse to step down the political podium and two others who are trying to return.
Ehud Olmert
From being the successor of the "new" Sharon - from disengagement to realignment - you have turned into the successor of the "old" Sharon – from failure of the first Lebanon war to failure in the second Lebanon war.
You took responsibility for the war, but you made sure you set up a committee of inquiry that would not find you responsible. Without the asset of realignment, you look like you're on the way to receivership.
Proposed action: Leave the mess behind and begin the remorse. Admit that you screwed up (everyone agrees about this anyway): You erred in your cabinet appointments, in supervising the military and perhaps you even erred in handling the war.
Begin implementing the conclusions drawn from the committee of inquiry today, because such conclusions will inevitably emerge tomorrow: Make changes in the Defense Ministry and in the IDF, set up a committee of cabinet ministers (headed by yourself) for dealing with the IDF's preparedness for the war.
You would do well to establish a national strategic headquarters nearby as well.
Amir Peretz
Your case looks like a total loss, which immediately calls for an alternative. You have slipped on every banana skin in your immediate radius.
You are the labor leader who fell in love with military parades, the left-winger who should have put reigns on the warmongers but instead cheered them on. You are the man who came from the One People movement, and ended up with one percent of the people's support.
Proposed action: Admit that you erred by agreeing to take the post of defense minister and ask your electorate for forgiveness for not upholding your social message. Don't be concerned that such a move will harm your chances of becoming a future prime minister or continuing to head the Labor Party. Perhaps this way you'll succeed in remaining the party's number-two man.
Benjamin Netanyahu
Don't be surprised by the polls. They are not a result of your actions, but a result of what you didn't say. Your problem is that sooner or later you'll have to start talking, and that doesn't usually do you any good.
Proposed action: Admit your failure in leaving Sharon's cabinet, which in turn led to the deterioration of the Likud and the establishment of Kadima. Announce that you are prepared to join an emergency coalition government for two reasons: The rehabilitation of the IDF and rehabilitation of the economy.
This way you'll also rehabilitate yourself, perhaps you'll also be saved from the conclusions reached by the committee of inquiry as to why there were no funds for war reserves during your term in office?
Ehud Barak
If you didn't really exist the Labor Party would have had to invent you right now. Instead of a social general, it is currently in dire need of a real general, one who can look Nasrallah, Assad and Ahmadinejad straight in the eye. So why aren't the party members dispatching an urgent message to you? Because you are not a human being, they say.
Proposed action: You should apologize for not partaking in the Labor Party primary elections to head the party, and announce that you are ready to serve the party at any cost. At the same time, you would do well to launch a campaign: Israel needs a terminator, not a poet. That's how Arnold Schwarzenegger won in California.
Media advisors tell their clientele: There are no desperate situations - there are only desperate people. The problem is that the political cemeteries are full of dead politicians who were desperate, and rightfully so.
