Olmert unconcerned by security matters when jogging in Central Park
Photo: GPO
Olmert’s unforgivable insensitivity
Prime minister's absence from Second Lebanon War memorial another reason for him to step down
"I'm an unpopular prime minister, the polls say so," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said this March, before the publication of the Winograd Commission’s interim report. "I think they are right," he added, "I am indeed an unpopular prime minister."
Since then, nothing has changed. One would have thought that in such a dire situation, any seasoned politician would begin working on their public image, particularly when the leader of the opposition, Benjamin Netanyahu, is preparing for early elections.
But Ehud Olmert is apparently unperturbed. What, for example, could be more unpopular than failing to attend the first memorial ceremony marking the first year to the Second Lebanon War? Was it not Olmert who impulsively decided to embark on this botched war, sending an unprepared IDF to battle without an agreed-upon action plan?
Following publication of the interim Winograd report, the IDF's chief of staff during the war, Dan Halutz, stepped down and in so doing accepted his responsibility for the failure. Thankfully, Amir Peretz, a defense minister who only took the job because he was not offered the finance portfolio and who had only been in office a short while before the war broke out, recently lost the Labor leadership to Ehud Barak, and thus is no longer defense minister. Yet despite this, both Halutz and Peretz found it appropriate to attend the memorial ceremony held at Mount Hertzl on Monday.
'Our leaders are at fault'
Ehud Olmert attributed his absence to the inconvenience of tight security, which he maintained would hinder the event. Apparently he was unconcerned by such problems when embarking on his Central Park jog in his recent trip to New York, accompanied by a contingent of bodyguards.
Some bereaved parents said they would have preferred the inconvenience of tight security checks to his "slap in the face" absence. Yet other parents were quoted as saying that they did not expect Olmert to show up anyway as he is a coward and was unable to look them in the face.
Olmert's unforgivable lack of sensitivity to the bereaved families' pain, alongside the upcoming publication of the Winograd Commission's final report, may very well cost the prime minister his job. This is a country where soldiers' lives are of the highest value, and a show of respect is the least anyone can do in appreciation and memory of these young men's sacrifice for their state.
In the words of a bereaved mother: "We have a wonderful country and dedicated soldiers; it is our leaders who are at fault."
And there is one leader – Ehud Olmert - who rises far above the rest. Olmert is indeed an unpopular prime minister – and it is high time he stepped down.
