Olmert's second chance
After Lebanon failure, PM has opportunity to show he can do better in Gaza
The prime minister had a whole weekend to decide how he wishes to proceed with the developing Gaza war.
Will he be satisfied with targeted assassinations by the Air Force alone? Will he allow a limited incursion by ground forces into the Gaza Strip? Will he order the army to reoccupy Gaza's Philadelphi Route? Perhaps the IDF should aim to reoccupy the entire Strip, after the disengagement blew up in Israel's face?
By 9:00 a.m. on Sunday Olmert will already be sitting at the conference room on the ground floor in his office, with ministers of Kadima and the Pensioners' Party. The weekly government session will open at 10:00 a.m.. At 2:15 p.m. he has the national security cabinet meeting.
All those meetings will feature debates on the manner of responding to the Gaza escalation. In all those meetings, there will be arguments over the need to evacuate residents from the southern town of Sderot.
In all those meetings, participants will discuss the next move in case the longer range Grad rockets are taken out of the Gaza warehouses and launched at the heart of the city of Ashkelon, home to 110,000 residents.
Until Sunday, Olmert has time to consider his options. The lesson of the Second Lebanon War failure is that he better undertake this process in cooperation with Peres, Livni, Peretz, Dichter, Lieberman, Eitan, and Yishai.
It would also be appropriate for him to consult with IDF Chief of Staff Ashkenazi, and if necessary with former Army Chiefs Halutz, Yaalon, Mofaz, and Ehud Barak. He should also be listening to Netanyahu.
Olmert also has to hear what former Gaza commanders and Southern Command chiefs have to say: Dan Harel, Gadi Shamni, Doron Almog, Yom Tov Semia, and even Yitzhak Mordechai. The prime minister is facing a test on Sunday morning, and he must come prepared.
Clenched teeth and creativity
Following the Winograd Commission's interim report, the prime minister is burdened with much more responsibility. The Winograd Commission did not rule that cabinet members should prepare excuses ahead of a possible failure.
Winograd ruled that the prime minister's duty is to remove the threat against Israeli civilians in a rational and wise manner.
This time around, Olmert is tasked with removing the threat on residents of Sderot, Ashkelon, and western Negev communities (yes, Netivot, Ofakim, and also Kiryat Gat and the communities in their vicinity are in the Grads' line of fire.)
After deciding Wednesday that the policy of restraint has run its course, the prime minister must now decide how he intends to do that. Will he resort to diplomatic means? Military means? Perhaps it would be appropriate to combine the two approaches?
Olmert must decide how to do it in a determined and smart way, with clenched teeth and creativity, while hurting the terrorists and allaying the fears of Sderot residents.
By Sunday morning, the date of his test and second chance, he must internalize the fact that he has the duty to provide security to residents of southern Israel. This is why we hired him to work for us.
