Cabinet handicapped from birth

The Olmert administration was born with a serious birth defect in its spinal cord. The defect paralyzed it right from the start; stooped and stinted in height it dragged itself down the steps of history without being able to stand upright. Handicapped from birth, it didn't fight its limitations, but rather, became addicted to them - soon it will fall.

It will fall not as a result of the Winograd report ,which reads like an opinion on a wayward class compiled in the teachers' lounge at an elitist school, but rather, because the public became sick of it months ago. In fact, from the day it was established.

Ehud Olmert handed out the ministerial portfolios based on the principle that ministers will get the portfolios they are least suited for - but which are most suited for Olmert's crossword puzzle of appointments. The public was quick to recognize the fraud and public opinion polls conducted at the time demonstrated deep-seated frustration at the cabinet composition and the portfolios handed to the ministers. The grace period given to newly instated governments disappeared in an instant.

The Olmert government set out with a severe shortage of credibility. Never in the history of newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth opinion polls had such a bad start been recorded. The overwhelming majority of citizens wanted Peretz in the Treasury and Mofaz in the Defense Ministry; but someone - a small group of opinion leaders - convinced Olmert that the Treasury must be manned by a member of the ruling party, and someone else convinced Amir Peretz that the former Histadrut labor union federation chairman would be a an exemplary civilian defense minister.

The outcome was a "grey government," as it was termed from day one. We termed it that way without knowing how accurate we were: The Winograd report tells the story of a cabinet that doesn't know how to govern and therefore is not worthy of governing, because its ministers are grey, unsuitable for their posts, and helpless.

Had Olmert given Peretz the finance portfolio and Shaul Mofaz the defense portfolio, Hizbullah may have been deterred from abducting soldiers due to its familiarity with Mofaz's iron fist in breaking up the Intifada. Amir Peretz in the Treasury would have objected to embarking on a retaliatory war, while Defense Minister Peretz supported it passionately.

Dark shadow of investigations

 After getting off to such a bad start, Olmert's government continued to lose public support. Olmert didn't  take advantage of the borrowed timeframe that preceded the war to refresh his cabinet and reassign portfolios. He continued to back Abraham Hirchson in the Treasury and Peretz in the Defense Ministry. It was convenient for him: Hirchson was a friend and Olmert "owed him" and Peretz played the part of the punching bag. This was a deficient management culture unlike any other.

Corruption was added to Olmert's leadership failure. One cannot ignore that more than a month-and-a-half ago 97 percent of the public had already determined that Olmert was unsuitable for the post of prime minister: Eighty percent noted that the primary reason was the state comptroller's investigations and allegations of corruption. In his reports and statements the state comptroller tainted the prime minister's image more so than the Winograd report.

We are a people who have suffered numerous wars and we know that they are not conducted surgically; even the Six-Day War was preceded by extreme evaluation errors by the intelligence forces. However, because of the high chances of fatal errors, Israelis want state matters to be run by an honest government, void of vested interests; it is incumbent upon us.

The dark shadow of investigations fell on Olmert, burdening and paralyzing him. Where were all those who are now calling for his resignation?

Good leadership is put to the test in a leader's ability to assign the right people to the right posts, in favoring public benefit over personal gain, and in winning the people's trust.

Olmert failed these tests long before the Winograd Commission sat down to write the last version of its partial report.

Our government was born with a serious birth defect in its spinal cord, and it is destined to die without one.